The Wolf of Aegis VII
by SilverMarten
Summary: On an otherwise normal day, the guys at Blood Gulch would never think that anything unusual would happen ever since they rid themselves of O'Malley. What they did not expect was another wild adventure when a white she-wolf who happens to be a god falls from the heavens.
1. The Fall

**Yeah, I did it. I created a crossover between Okami and Red vs. Blue. It may not be that unusual considering there are stranger crossover stories, but still... I do not know if I will be able to pull this off, but I will try. It's certainly making me nervous as hell!**

**There will probably some AU elements in both worlds but I will try to maintain at least some sort of cohesion in regards to canon. If there are any issues or inconsistencies, please let me know. I know I'm not the best writer out there but I want to improve. **

**The Reds and Blues don't show up much in this chapter, but they will in the next. Considering the connections between Red vs. Blue and the Halo universe, there will be material that involves that franchise.  
**

**_Okami _belongs to Capcom and _Red vs. Blue _belongs to RoosterTeeth. Any non-RvB Halo material that would be included belongs to Microsoft. All OC's belong to me.  
**

* * *

**The Wolf of Aegis VII:**

**Chapter 1: The Fall  
**

Drifting in the darkness of space was something ancient and unheard of. The light from the nearing star shone its brilliance upon silver metallic surfaces. The sharp angles and strange geometries created a distinct but solid form against the darkness. Aside from its peculiar design, no one would have thought much of it, but the vessel appeared without warning and within UNSC space, and thus was a potential threat.

Normally, a shipboard AI would receive a wealth of data whenever a UNSC ship scanned an object in deep space. This vast set of seemingly confusing numbers would be analyzed at a fraction of a second by a smart AI. Nearly everything about the subject that can be detected would be seen. In this case, however, there is very little data to work with. When Commander Cole was informed of this, he became greatly concerned.

"What do you mean you can't tell what it is?" he asked.

A female voice answered, "Exactly what that means, Commander. I have never seen this before. It does not match any ship profile in our databanks. I cannot detect any residual signatures of any sort from it. The only thing I can tell you is that whatever it is, it's dead."

Cole looked around the bridge of his ship. The command crew of _Divine Retribution_ was working on their various tasks, but he knew that they were at the very least intrigued by their finding. He could not blame them. When looked back at the visual images of the object, he determined that it was artificial. It was a sleek thing with a grey hull that shined in the sunlight. There structures that seemed to perform typical ship functions. The forward section had what seemed like communications antennae. The aft seemed to have four rounded protrusions attached the superstructure that Cole assumed to be engines of some sort. The most distinct feature was a vast film of white material that radiated perpendicular to the vessel that had to be some sort of solar sail. The "sail" seemed to have been deployed around the vessel's midsection. He could barely make out some sort of design on it.

The AI's voice spoke out again. "Commander, there is a top priority transmission coming from _Mother of Invention_."

The commander slightly hung his head and sighed. "Put him through, A."

There was a moment of silence followed by a quick burst of static. A slightly accented voice sounded over the intercom.

"What do you have, Commander Cole?"

He paused for a moment before answering. "We have been tracking the object for the past three hours Director. We cannot determine its identity or origin. It appears to have no life signs."

"What is its trajectory," the commanding voice said sternly. "Where is it heading?"

"We're working on that now, sir. My ship will keep their distance and-"

"No! I want to know everything that can be known about that ship. You are to investigate it through any means necessary. I want you to get close to it and board it if you can."

Cole gritted his teeth. Who did this guy think he is? If it were not for the fact that this man was given command over him, Cole would have objected in a rather unprofessional manner. It was not so much that this order was not standard protocol; it was the fact that this Director was not military. He was a civilian. A scientist, but of what Cole did not know.

Knowing that he could not argue, Cole simply said, "Yes, sir."

"Keep me informed, Commander. I don't want any potentially useful information withheld." And then there was silence. After several minutes, that long silence was broken.

"Well, he seems to be a very patient fellow. I wonder if he forgot his morning coffee."

Cole chuckled a bit. The AI assigned to him and his ship was something. She was part of the newest generation of smart AIs and was more than capable of using the human concept of humor.

"Plot out a course that gets us as close to that thing as possible, A. If it does anything, even as much as show a heat signature I want this ship to be ready to move away at top speed."

"I know you're one for protocol, but this seems a little unorthodox for you."

"Orders are orders and despite the fact that I hate that son of a bitch, we have to follow them."

"You know, you have never told me why you hate Director Church. I couldn't find anything in our databanks to suggest that you have had any sort of relationship with him."

Cole looked out the window and saw the derelict ship. He was fascinated by it like anyone else and he did want to know about it. Problem was that just about every time some weird object shows up in space; bad things have a tendency to happen. He sighed, "It's a long story, A. You won't find anything in the records. And I don't hate him. I just disagree with him on too many things."

"I'll take your word for it. I have a course plotted, commander."

He turned to the helmsman and motioned to him. "Let's get this over with. Take her in."

After replying with an "Aye, sir", the ship slowly moved towards the strange and seemingly dead relic.

* * *

When she began to stir, there was nothing but darkness. She could barely hear anything and whatever she could hear was distorted and indistinct. Soon, a light blur began to enter her vision. It was not particularly bright so she figured that wherever here was, it was not outside in the sunlight. As the blurry image began to clear, her consciousness started to recall what had occurred before she lost it. A constant stream of images flew into her mind, revealing all that she had done to save the world of men. She could remember defeating the great evil that plagued her and her comrades and leaving the earth to restore her home.

Her vision finally cleared and her senses were fully restored. The white wolf sensed that no one was around. The first thing she could see was a great light shining down upon her. It was the Sun. She mentally reached out to it, intending to feel its warmth and light. As she had done so, she stopped. Something was wrong. Something felt very wrong with the Sun. In spite of its brilliance and likeness to her symbol of power, this Sun was unfamiliar. It was different. It was alien. It was not Her Sun.

_How could this be? _A wave of anxiety fell upon the goddess. She knew that this had to be one of those distant stars that dominated the night. She could never have gotten close enough for any one of the points of light to glow as bright as her in the past. They were simply too far away. The Ark was an impressive ship able to travel between the Celestial Plain, the Moon, and the Earth, but it would never be able to travel to those distant stars. It could never get out that far on its own.

_What has happened?_

* * *

As the _Divine Retribution_ closed in on the alien vessel, Doctor Ellen Miles sat in her lab staring at the images of the alien ship. The thing was not like any ship design she had ever seen before. She may be a theoretical physicist, but alien architecture was always something of great interest to her. Ellen noticed that this ship shares many similarities with Forerunner designs. There were the sharp angles and the sleek geometric form, but there were some differences.

A nearby holoprojector suddenly shone to life and a human figure materialized above it. The AI's avatar was that of a young woman with long hair. She wore an oriental robe that covered the entire body. She had an Asian complexion not unlike that of the doctor she had appeared to.

"I see you have been busy," the AI said.

Ellen turned to see the construct looking over her. She scoffed and said, "Probably nowhere near as busy as you."

The AI shrugged her holographic shoulders. "Technically speaking, yes. However, I find it prudent to not be so literal-minded when conversing with humans."

"Well, I'm not the one who could perform a thousand integral calculations a second in my head."

"That may be true, but the point I was trying to make is that you and I are working as hard as we are physically able."

Ellen shifted her focus back to the documents in front of her. She had very little information to give and anything that could be discerned was already found by the AI.

A hissing sound was heard from behind and Ellen turned to see Cole walking in. "What do you have, Doc?"

"Nothing new," she replied.

Cole looked to the AI. "How long until ETA?"

"At this rate, 33 minutes and 40 seconds until we make physical contact. It will probably be somewhat sooner considering we don't want to actually collide with it."

"Very funny, A. Keep me posted."

The hologram disappears, leaving the doctor and the commander alone. Without looking up from the documents, Ellen asked, "Why do you do that?"

"Do what, Miles?"

"Not using her full name. It's not that hard to pronounce."

"Yes, but 'Amaterasu' is a bit hard to say in conversation sometimes. Besides, she doesn't seem to mind."

Well, it was not 'that' hard to say. Some AI's had names that were utterly difficult if not downright impossible to say. Then again, most had taken easier names. Amaterasu never really said why she had taken the name and likeness of a sun goddess. Cole would probably have to ask her some other time.

Cole picked up a photo and looked at it. "What do you think, Miles? Forerunner?"

"I don't know. In my professional opinion, there's not enough information for me to form a conclusion about it."

"And in your personal opinion?"

After a moment of silence, Ellen replied, "I don't think it is."

* * *

The alien ship was now close enough for the frigate's crew to make out distinct details. The metallic sheen of the hull and sail was smoother than expected. Everyone could see that the design on the sail was that of a rather menacing looking hand, which surprised some crewmembers. It also looked more primitive than anyone thought. It may have been shiny and odd-looking, but it was modular in design. No Forerunner craft ever discovered was modular.

The voice of Amaterasu rang out on the intercom. "Sir, we're receiving a message from _Mother of Invention_. The Director wants us to tow the vessel once preliminary scans are complete."

Cole looked down, as if deep in thought. Why the hell did the Director suddenly change his mind? He looked to a man at a console and told him, "Warm up the tow cables."

"Aye, sir."

As the man did what he was told, he chuckled louder than he should have. Cole certainly noticed this.

"What's so funny, ensign?"

"It's nothing, sir."

"Doesn't look like nothing."

The younger man sighed. "Well, it's just that we have all this advanced technology. We can travel faster than light. We can fight off an invasion from aliens and win. We have AI's that can think for themselves. I just find it funny that we still use tow cables."

"What do you mean?" asked another man sitting at an adjacent console. "This ain't fucking Star Trek, Polasky!"

"I'm just sayin', Cam. You'd think we'd have something like a tractor beam. The Covenant had something like that but no; we have lame-ass tow cables."

The helmsman named Cameron turned to Polasky. He gave an incredulous look. "Do you have any idea how much power it would take to do something like that?" The other man shook his head. "Well, a lot more than this little ship can generate."

Cole raised his hand. "Are you two finished?" The two men looked up and nodded at his superior, somewhat embarrassed.

"Good. I'm sure you have the "lame-ass" tow cables ready, right?"

Polasky nodded, "Yes, sir."

"A, are we within range?"

There was a pause before she answered, "We are within safe distance, Commander."

"Punch it."

* * *

The goddess continued to ponder her situation. She was nowhere near the Celestial Plain where she was supposed to be. The bright alien sun continued to shine through the Ark's viewports, its rays illuminating the small disc-shaped vehicle upon which the wolf was standing on. As she scanned the alien skies, she noticed something odd.

Assuming what was to be off the Ark's port side was a great...thing. It had a metallic surface like that of the Ark and it had strange markings. All similarities ended there. Though it was certainly a ship that sailed across the stars, there was no sail to propel it. All markings on it were unfamiliar, though there was a symbol of a great bird rising above a globe alongside a set of words that took her attention:

**FFG-262 DIVINE RETRIBUTION**

Even though she could not understand it, the wolf found it eerily similar to Waka's native tongue.

Waka...

Where was he? She could certainly remember being with the prophet before her mind went blank. He was the man who flew this ship, yet there was no sign of him. She telepathically called out to him. No response.

_Waka!_ she cried out. Nothing. The great room was silent as the dark emptiness she and the Ark were trapped in.

She could only whimper. She was alone and knowing that she could not hope to fly the ship, she would be for some time. Unless...

She looked up at the strange vessel again. It was at a close, but relatively safe distance from the Ark. Or at least, she hoped it was. Her mind reached out to the ship, sensing for any sign of activity. Perhaps it or whoever is controlling it could help her?

What came was a cacophony of strange sounds and voices. There were strange beeping and whistling noises that constantly beat out at her mind. They were awfully similar to that of the sounds made by the machinery and Waka's base back at Sei-an City. Her mind then sensed another set of sounds. There were voices speaking in foreign tongues. She could easily translate them, since being a god allowed her to be able to understand any living thing regardless of language. However, she could not make out some of the words they were using or what they meant. She heard men and women saying words like "Forerunner", "UNSC", "High-density steel composition", "Covenant", "artificial intelligence", and "Reach". None of these things made any sense to her.

She could sense that they were human. This shocked her. Humans? Out here amongst the stars? The Moon Tribe was certainly capable of such a feat, but they were not really human and were practically extinct. Perhaps one of their ships has managed to escape the tragedy on the Moon? Unlikely. She knew of no ship that could traverse such great distances.

She eavesdropped on the minds of the crew of the strange vessel, mostly hearing idle chatter. Most of these conversations made little sense to her. Some were speaking of fanciful tales about a man named Shaw-Fukikawa who had the ability to move things faster than light. Others spoke of alien worlds and horrible battles with alien creatures. Though this confused her greatly, she knew that questions about this would have to wait.

Out of the white noise of a thousand human minds and machines, the goddess heard something she did not expect. It was her name.

She could barely make it out, but they were using her name. Completely ignoring the fact that nearly everything about that ship and crew is foreign to her, the Goddess barked in joy. Perhaps someone has come to rescue her and Waka. Her moment of hope, however, was short-lived.

The Ark suddenly shook, causing the wolf to fall off her four feet. The consoles lit up and bristled with activity, illuminating her body with an ambient red. Before she could even try to figure out what was happening, the ship lurched again. This time, it was much more powerful and caused her to be knocked off the control platform. She hit the floor of the room hard and gasped for air. She is much weaker than she used to be.

* * *

The _Retribution_ shook violently, tossing nearly everyone to one side. Cole bumped his head on a console and it took him a while to regain his sense of perception. Alarms were blaring and he could hear people running about and barking out orders. He managed to stand up and asked, "What the hell just happened?!"

Amaterasu's avatar appeared on the bridge's holotank. "There was a massive energy spike from the unknown vessel and it immediately activated its engines. We are being pulled by it!"

Cole stumbled up to the window and saw the aft end of the unknown ship ablaze with white flame. It was moving, pulling the _Retribution _along with it. The ship continued to shake violently.

"Detach those tow cables, A!"

"I am trying, but the tow control is not responding! That first jerk must have damaged it somehow… that kind of sounds odd when I say it that way."

Polasky, who was busy trying to hold his part of the ship together, yelled out, "Not a good time for your jokes, Ammy!"

"You're the one who's been joking just a mere two minutes ago, Polasky!" Cameron yelled back.

"You're the one who thought it was funny!"

Cole had enough. There were more important things to worry about at the moment. "Quit it, you two! A, is there any way you can manually cut us loose?"

"Not without having to actually go out there and cut them with plasma cutters." The ship began to ease up little by little. Everyone still felt a little shaking, but it was certainly smoother than it was before.

"I've fired up the _Retribution_'s engines to try and match the speed of the alien craft. It should give us a smoother ride."

Cole looked out and saw what was ahead of his ship. "I don't know if that's going to matter for long, A. Are we heading where I think we are?"

Ahead of both ships was the looming dark sphere of Aegis VII. And it was getting larger and larger.

* * *

As the interior of the Ark shook, the wolf god saw what was happening with the other vessel. She could hear the anguish and the emotional chaos there and she knew as they did what would happen if they cannot break off. Trying her best to ignore the violent quaking beneath her feet, the wolf ran to the nearest exit. She needed to get outside, even though she knew little of the Ark's layout.

Upon leaving the control room, another jolt accompanied by a great rumbling was felt. This one felt really bad, as if the ship was about to tear itself in half. She did not have much time. Whatever was happening, it would stack the odds against her.

She entered a large chamber, similar to the last in size and architecture. However, she was not alone. Standing around inside, disoriented and confused, were a pair of green imps. They looked at every direction, trying to find out what was happening. They soon happened to look into her direction. Without warning, both demons readied themselves for combat. The Goddess answered in kind, wielding the divine instrument Solar Flare. The red disc flared to life in magnificent flames, harboring the very essence of the Sun. As she readied for their attack, something exploded nearby that caught their attention. Before she could see what had happened, the imps were crushed by a falling piece of debris from above.

The wolf smirked. _That is quite a fortunate coincidence._

She ran again, hoping to find a way outside. She could still hear the minds of the humans as clearly as she could hear the constant rumbling and banging of the deteriorating Ark.

The Ark jolted again and the interior lights flickered. Some of the lamps were suddenly snuffed out. She walked out of another hallway only to run into a group of imps. Just as she passed them, they jumped out of the way. Then a monotone female voice rang out, "Warning: Artificial gravity has been disabled."

The lights flickered again and when the Goddess jumped to avoid an imp, she did not fall back down. The wolf god found herself and the other demons floating off the ground. None of them had any control over their movements, spinning and flipping in an almost graceful way. It was an intriguing sensation.

Able to regain her bearings, the Goddess pulled out a rosary and shot at them, the recoil giving her a slight push backwards in zero-gravity environment. All the beads struck their targets and their bodies were flipping backwards from the impacts before disintegrating into dust.

She turned herself around and launched herself off of a piece of floating debris towards another corridor. As she flew down the corridor, another explosion ripped a massive hole into the wall. Everything suddenly began to fly towards the opening and out into the emptiness of space. The Goddess was among them.

Tumbling out at great speed, she bumped into bits and pieces of metal and glass. The light of the sun beat down on her. It was much hotter than she expected, but it did not hurt. Her ears picked up no sound and her lungs took in no air. She was in the vacuum of space.

She looked back to see the Ark and the alien ship it was towing. The Ark looked nothing like she remembered at all! The sails were different. The hull was different. Everything about it was different! She could not worry about that now. The wolf saw the towing cables that bound the two ships and without hesitation, the wolf god lifted her tail and the world around her turned into the beige-colored canvas that was so familiar to her. A line was drawn across the cables and they were cleanly cut, freeing the alien vessel from the Ark.

She did it. At the risk of her own life, and perhaps her own existence, she saved the lives of hundreds whom she never knew. She could hear them now, clear against the backdrop of silence, cheering as the ship began to break off. She could feel their praise and gratitude, though they probably never knew what saved them.

Their praise strengthened her ever so little, but it was enough. It was enough to keep her alive for a while as she drifted towards the great world ahead. But she was tired. In spite of the looming planet of which she will surely fall to, the Goddess closed her eyes and drifted to sleep.

* * *

When the _Retribution_ reached a safe distance, everyone onboard gave a sigh of relief. No one had any idea exactly what it was that happened; all that mattered for the moment was that the ship was not going to crash into the green world of Aegis VII. Cole watched with relief and regret as the alien ship entered the planet's atmosphere, where it will soon crash. Nothing was as paramount as the safety of the ship and crew, but the commander thought about that lost opportunity. They could have learned something from it. Maybe they still can when the UNSC examines the crash site, which he was certain they will.

The holoprojector came to life and the AI Amaterasu appeared.

"So much for being in the history books."

"I don't know about that, Ammy," Polasky said. "We're probably the first guys who's ever been towed by an alien spaceship."

Cameron, who fell off of his chair during the ride, pointed his finger in the air and said, "What about what happened to the _Golden Mallet _during the war? Same thing happened to her only worse."

"Hey, I've heard about that ship. What happened to it?"

"No one knows. They never found the wreckage."

Cole paid little attention to their conversation. He knew what happened to that ship and had no desire to tell them. They did not want to know. Walking around the bridge, he examined the state of the room and crew. Everyone was relieved that they were not going to hit the planet, that much was certain. As they slowly began to resume to duties, the commander somehow felt that they were thinking what he was: They should have never been so lucky. Those cables were too strong to snap under sheer physical stress alone. They were designed to handle high amounts of tension from heavy objects.

His thoughts on the matter were interrupted when Amaterasu spoke again, "What do I tell them?"

The commander focused his gaze upon the alien vessel as it burned in the planet's atmosphere. He could imagine some of the UNSC forces on the ground beginning to converge at wherever the thing was going to crash. A strange feeling rippled through him. It was hard to describe, but he somehow knew that something was down there; something powerful but strangely familiar like a distant memory from childhood. He could not put his hand on it and it made him want to find out.

Turning to face the AI, he answered, "That I need to have a word with Director Church."

* * *

In the middle of the night inside a lone box canyon, were two bases. Both were situated at opposite sides of this canyon where there is no way in or out. One could wonder why anyone would live here. The reason was simple; the inhabitants were at war with each other. Well, if one could call what these guys have been doing for the past few months a "war". It was more of a constant state of bickering. There was a few times where they exchanged shots, but not enough to be called battles. For quite some time, the red and blue inhabitants have had a simple yet important question cross their minds: Why are they here?

This question has entered everyone's minds at least once. Per day. But for the moment, this was not a concern. You know, because everyone is asleep.

None of these men knew of the events that took place hundreds of miles above them. Nor did they know that what would fall from the skies would change their lives forever. Even if they were awake and were convinced to watch what would seem to be a meteor shower, they would not think much of it. Then again, they don't think much of anything.

This is because they are idiots. They are not just idiots; they are the biggest idiots that humanity has yet conceived. The idiocy of these idiots would be off the charts if some idiot was idiotic enough to come up with an idiotic idea such as an idiot scale to measure the idiocy of idiots. Perhaps this is why they are here: There was no place to put the idiots.

One such idiot woke up to a most peculiar and disturbing sound. The idiot got up and put on his helmet. It was the only thing he needed since he slept with armor on. They all did. Why do they do this? Even they do not know. Such is the thinking of idiots.

The man walked out of his room, careful to avoid any missteps that could awaken his compatriots. Slowly, but surely the man clad in blue armor managed to exit the base. Though it was dark, he could see somewhat clearly around him. He looked around at the fields and canyon walls before finally looking up at the night sky. Many miles away at a great altitude was a great ball of fire accompanied by many smaller streaks of light. There were many small streaks of light. Though this spectacle seemed quite far, the man shook a little in fear. He did not know exactly what he was seeing. Knowledge of astronomy was not his strongest suit. Knowledge of any kind was not his strongest suit.

A distant bang caused the young man to look up and see one of the streaks glow especially bright. Not as bright as the ever-descending ball of fire, but brighter than any star he had seen before. It also seemed stationary as it grew in brightness.

It turns out it was not stationary at all. The light zoomed by high above, disappearing behind a canyon wall. A distant but audible boom was heard shortly after. The armored man in blue stared at the direction where the object landed. He paid no attention to the other debris that fell, for they landed far from here. This piece, whatever it may be, fell quite close and the man was curious. After the great fireball disappeared into the night, there was total silence.

After several minutes of staring at the wall, the young man decided to walk back to base and go back to sleep. Though he did not know it, Michael J. Caboose had witnessed the fall of one of the greatest discoveries of all time. Even though he is an idiot, most who would have witnessed this event would not have thought much of it, either.

* * *

**So, there's the first part. I know it's fairly long for an intro but this is where I could stop. **

**I decided to name the planet Aegis VII since it is never really mentioned where Blood Gulch actually is. I know it's probably on a Halo but then there were some issues(why would the UNSC put the guys and Project Freelancer on one? They certainly couldn't have built one themselves.) that I just did not want to mess with. So, they're just on a regular boring planet.  
**

**I hope this works out...**


	2. Another Day At the Office

**Well, here's the next chapter. This one has the Red and Blue guys now. **

**I was hoping this part would be a bit longer but, okay. Here's the second chapter. **

* * *

**Chapter 2: Just a Day At the Office**

When the wolf woke up, she had a pretty horrible headache. The sight that greeted her eyes was that of the morning sun. She looked around to get a feel of her surroundings to find out that she was lying on her back in a ridiculous position. She also found herself in the middle of a crater five feet deep.

Righting herself up, the Goddess walked out of the hole she had literally dug up and took in the surroundings. There were vast grasslands that were lush and full of life. Wildlife of a sort she had never seen partook in their daily activities. At a great distance in front of her, a mountain range stood broad and high. The sun had just risen above them, illuminating their outlines. Not too far behind her was a forest that probably extended for many miles.

She picked up the overwhelming life in her mind, making her want to actually shut some of it off. This world was teeming with it! Nippon was a beautiful world in it's own right, but this. This place was untouched by men and demonic forces of destruction. It was clean and she loved it!

The wolf trotted across the grass. It was so soft and comforting. It felt so familiar, yet so different. Already, she could feel the alien wildlife take an interest in her. One such creature brought its head out of the grass.

It was strange looking thing, for it had the head of a songbird but the body was more like that of a cat. The body was covered in green feathers (or at least what looked like feathers) instead of fur and it had a long, whip-like tail. It approached her cautiously, but it soon knew that the wolf was friendly.

It walked up to the wolf, standing no higher than her ankles, and rubbed her front legs, giving off a low but gentle growl. Praise radiated from it, of which the goddess took gladly.

She heard odd chirping sounds from around her and saw that at least half a dozen of these creatures were approaching her. They were also cautious at first, but they soon sensed that she was not a threat to them. The feathered creatures scampered up to her and joined their companion. Their combined praise for Her calmed the goddess. She understood that life in any of its forms was still precious, no matter how alien they may be. Whatever these creatures were did not matter to her. They were living things.

A sudden rumbling in the distance took her attention. The small creatures at the wolf's feet looked around, frightened at the strange noise. She looked up to see a flock of what looked like strange birds flying low in the sky. She soon noticed that they were not birds at all. They were traveling at almost impossible speeds and their bodies glinted in the sunlight. They were made of metal.

As thundering noise grew louder, the small feathered creatures fled in all directions. She noticed more odd features on the strange craft. They were quite large and bulky; nowhere near as large as the Ark was but still bigger than most artificial craft she's seen. Their dull grey bodies were angular in design with small fixed wings. Much of their masses seemed to be built at the bow of each individual craft surrounding a glass "head". She lowered her head and snarled at them, believing they could be some sort of malevolent entities.

She never noticed any more details as they whooshed past her. The wolf watched as the three aircraft flew away from her and towards a pillar of smoke in the direction of the forest miles away. That smoke marked where the Ark crashed. She knew they were heading there and that is where she will go as well.

* * *

As the morning sun rose above the enigmatic and dull colored canyon of Blood Gulch, Leonard L. Church was not having a good morning. Well, he rarely has what one would call, "good mornings". They were hardly good for him. He even hated the phrase. His definition of a good morning would be being at a place away from the others where he could have peace and quiet. It was not because he hated the other soldiers. He just did not like them. There is a big difference. Church would be happy to point that out.

The problem with mornings was that they were always the same. Church wakes up to Caboose screaming at him to wake up. Then he has to listen to Tucker talk about his recent pornography videos while eating twenty-year old bran flakes. There is nothing worse to do in an early morning than listening to a pervert while eating pieces of cardboard. Then he would have to listen to Caboose talking about what goes on in his twisted, twisted mind. It is a wonder how Church had not gone homicidal yet.

The good news is all that is over. The bad news: anything can happen at this point.

Church was standing on top of the base looking out at the other side of the canyon when Caboose walked up to him.

"Uh, Church? I think there is something I need to tell you."

Church sighed. "What is it, Caboose?"

"I think something happened last night. You see, I was woken up by a really weird noise and I decided to go outside and see what it is. Then I..."

Great, another one of Caboose's dream stories. Church resisted the urge tell him to stop or at least walk away, but he was not in the mood to. Instead he just stood there listening and not caring.

"...and then I saw that the sky was on fire and I thought 'Why would the sky be on fire? There's no wood to burn up there.' And so I looked at it and..."

Church had no interest in any of this at all. Normally, he could handle Caboose and his strange ways but everyone has a breaking point and Church did not want to reach it.

"...then there was this big white ball that flew above my head," he pointed at a canyon wall. "And it went that way. I have never seen it since."

"Maybe that's because it's outside this canyon."

"Yeah, I think you're right," Caboose said. "You think we can go find it?"

Church was about to say no but then he thought of something.

"Actually, I think you might. Why don't you go out and take a look?"

Caboose looked out at the canyon wall and then back at Church. "You're not coming?"

"Uh, no. I think it would be a good idea that it's just you. You know, because you're the only who saw...whatever it is you saw. I don't want to slow you down."

"I wouldn't want to slow me down, either."

"Yeah, well go out and look for that thing you saw."

Caboose ran out after he said, "Okay!" Finally, Church has found a way to get him off his back. Oh wait. He forgot one little thing.

"Oh!" Church shouted. "Don't come back until you find it!"

In the distance, Church could hear, "Okay! I won't let you down, Church!" Caboose then disappeared over the hill.

Church gave a sigh of relief. Finally he could have a moment of peace and quiet. It would take quite some time for Caboose to find something he probably only dreamed up. He did wonder if anything bad could happen to Caboose. Nah, that was rare. Caboose could take care of himself, even if he was not aware of it most of the time. Or all the time. Church also thought about the possibility of Caboose actually finding something. But it might be more than he bargained for. It has happened on more than one occasion and it never turns out well for Church.

That did not matter right now. All that mattered was that Church was alone now and that nothing would interrupt his quiet moment of-

"Church! Hey Church, where are you?! I need your help with something!"

It was Tucker. Church uttered a profanity to himself. Somehow, he could feel that this day was going to really suck.

* * *

On the other side of the canyon, the Reds had their own daily rituals to worry about. It all started when Simmons found Grif rummaging through his DVD collection for the eighth time this week. Damn that Grif! How many times did Simmons have to reorganize his entire anime collection because that orange-clad idiot has no sense of tidiness? Or stealth for that matter.

Sarge was not exactly happy at the moment either. He was not unhappy enough to shoot Grif but it was enough for him to point his shotgun at him, though. What is it that has upset the S-Dog?

The jeep broke down. Again.

Though Lopez was working on it for the moment, it did not take long for Sarge to get a bit impatient.

Sarge watched as the robot worked on the warthog. "Lopez!" he said. "What is taking so long?"

"Sólo he estado aquí durante diez minutos. ¿Cómo puedo solucionar esto si ni siquiera he averiguado cuál es el problema?"  
_**I have only been here for ten minutes. How could I fix this thing if I haven't even figured out what the problem is?**_

"Well, get a move on! We need to be ready in case the dirty Blues decide to attack!"

"Lo dudo mucho."  
_**I highly doubt that.**_

"That's right. Who knows what those dastardly Blues are up to? They could be planning an attack at this very moment!"

Lopez did not bother to look at his superior. "Nunca lo hacen nada excepto puestecillo alrededor y hablar." _**They never do anything except stand around and talk.**_

Sarge chuckled and said, "Well, I'll just leave you to your work, Lopez. You better get that done soon." He then leaves. The only response Lopez could give was simply, "Idiota."

Elsewhere in the base inside one of the many identical rooms, Simmons had just finished putting his precious collection back together. He was glad that Grif was not around anymore, but he found quite unfortunate that Donut helped him. Donut was always more...happy than most. Anyone could tell by his pink, er...light red armor.

"Oh man, Simmons! That was a pretty good cleaning up, if I do say so myself."

"At least this is finished," Simmons said. "I will make sure he will never go touch my stuff again."

"That's a good idea. Like my mom always said: It's always a good idea to protect your valuables."

Simmons looked at him for a moment. "I don't know if that is supposed to make sense one way or another..."

"There's only one way, the-"

"Don't say anything. I don't need to hear any more."

Donut stood up and stretched his arms. "Well, now that's done, I got to go and upload these pictures of that awesome meteor shower on Facebook."

"Yeah, whatever. Wait a minute." Simmons called out to Donut before he left the room, "Meteor shower? What meteor shower?"

Donut turned around and said, "The one from last night!"

"Last night!? There was no meteor shower last night!" Simmons was right. He had lived here long enough to keep track of celestial events like that. He knew how often and when such things would happen and last night was not one of those times.

The pink-armored man pulled out a point-and-shoot camera and waved it in the air. "Cameras never lie, Simmons."

"I'd really like to look at those."

"Sorry Simmons, but these photos are private only. Only my Facebook friends can see them."

"Private only!? We've been living with each other for over a year! Sarge has even had security cameras set up ever since we got here! There's no such thing as private only at our base!"

"Not everything is being watched. You just have to find better places to hide your things. Now if you don't mind, I'd like to go get this done." With that, Donut left. Before Simmons could follow him, he heard Sarge bark out from outside, "Hey, Simmons? Where are you? I need ya!"

Simmons scoffed. "Great. Guess I'll figure that out later." He ran out to meet Sarge just outside of the base.

"Simmons, where the hell is Grif?" Sarge said.

"Grif? I haven't seen him since this morning."

"Goddangit, Simmons! You were supposed to be watching him."

"I thought nobody watches Grif."

"Only in certain situations and this isn't one of them."

"He's probably somewhere taking a nap like he always does."

"Well, go look for him! I need him ASAP!"

Simmons obeyed. Annoyed. It was rare for Sarge to ask him to look for Grif. Or do anything in regards to Grif, for that matter. Unless that involved hurting him in someway, in that case it is not that rare. That is common, actually. But in this case, Sarge said nothing about hurting Grif. How odd.

The maroon-colored soldier walked around that side of the canyon, looking for that chubby bastard. Ten minutes pass. Twenty minutes pass. He was getting impatient and started throwing rocks at any possible hiding places that included small growths of weeds, behind rocks, and small coves and crevices in the canyon wall. He muttered to himself, thinking about the kind of things he would do to him for messing with his anime collection.

His search was soon rewarded when he came upon a cove not too far from Red base. Inside was Grif sleeping soundly. This was the perfect time for Simmons to make a comeback.

Quietly creeping towards the orange-clad snoozefest, Simmons stopped not two inches from him and yelled. "Wake up, jackass!"

Grif shot up and screamed. "WHA!" He looked up to see Simmons standing over him. Sweating a little, he asked, "How the hell did you find me?!"

"No one can hide from the Simmons. Sarge really wants to know why you've been sleeping on the job."

"Do you really not know the answer to that question?"

There was a long pause as the two men looked at each other.

"Good point."

"…You're still mad at me about stupid anime crap, aren't you?"

Simmons pointed a finger at him. "Who wouldn't be?! I spent over three years putting all that together. What the hell were you thinking?!"

"I just needed to find a quiet place to sleep."

Shocked by his answer, Simmons could not even reply to that for a few moments. "You know what? Forget what I said. Just take your blanket and crystal ball and get back to the base."

"Alright, whatever…" Grif stopped. It did not take long for him to realize something in Simmons' statement did not add up. He expressed it to him. "Crystal ball?" He turned to the small crevice he slept in and saw something half-buried in the dirt. Crawling into the small dark space, Grif reached out to grab the thing. It took a few tugs to loosen it but he finally retrieved what appeared to be a glass orb in his hand.

"Huh," Grif said. "I don't remember seeing this thing."

Simmons moved closer to get a better look at it. "You probably stole it."

"Did not! I've never seen this before."

Grif brought the orb closer to his helmet. It was a perfectly round glass sphere with no sign of wear and damage. Even though he was wearing gloves, the Red would venture to guess that the surface was completely smooth with no imperfections. He soon noticed that the interior of the orb was not transparent and instead was filled with some sort of white smoke. What truly surprised him was within that cloud of smoke was a symbol.

Simmons immediately knew what it was.

"Is that a kanji symbol?"

"A what?"

"It's a written character of Japanese."

"Wow, I guess that anime obsession is useful for something." He heard Simmons mumble quietly. "Do you know what it says?"

"I don't know. It's kind of fuzzy."

At first, the two did not realize that the white smoke began to move and roll about in a hardly noticeable way. Grif rotated the orb in different directions, but the symbol remained in the same orientation facing them. Both of them noted this oddity. They soon noticed that something was happening as the interior of the sphere began to rile up, accompanied by a low hum. The smoke lost its uniformity, forming white and dark patches within. Light started to emanate from deep inside, creating light beams that slightly illuminated the cove.

"Uh…Grif?"

He could not pull his eyes from it, no matter how hard he wanted to. And neither can Simmons. The orb soon glowed so bright that it was blinding and then it felt as if something blew up in their faces and projected upon the surface of the cove were various images. The two men were transfixed at the collage of different scenes depicting places they do not recognize and people they do not know. Some of them were static while others were like short video clips. All of them were different and all were moving across the walls.

Many of the static images showed breathtaking views of vast forests and towering mountains. There were scenes were of various animals, from _Earth_, that went about their daily lives. It was like a David Attenborough documentary. The two somewhat expected a British voice to narrate. There were other scenes was that of an ancient oriental city covered in green smoke where the people were so sick they could barely stand. Another image was that of a massive and unsightly creature with eight serpentine heads attached to a mountain. Another was that of a grey sailing ship that _flew in the sky. _ Nearly everything that was projected by the glowing white orb defied any sense of reality.

"Grif!" Simmons was barely able to tear his gaze from the images while Grif continue to stare. Some indescribable force was holding them against their will. Or maybe it was just sheer awe.

One scene started to take precedence over the others. What they saw was a white wolf with the strangest features they have ever seen. Bright red markings adorned its body, forming swirls along its sides, lines surrounding black eyes, and a circle on its forehead. The shoulder blades tapered to fluffy tufts and the tail was shaped like a paintbrush. As odd as this was, there was something about this wolf that seemed familiar.

Just as Simmons was able to regain some control of himself, the wolf threw its head up and a piercing howl nearly froze him in place. It was the most haunting sound he had ever heard. Simmons grabbed Grif's arm and flung downwards, causing the orb to fall out of his hand and the bright lights and images instantly vanished. Simmons threw Grif's blanket on it, leaving the mystical and trip-inducing orb out their sight.

Simmons ran up to Grif's face and shook him at the shoulders. "Grif! Are you okay?!" No response. He just sat there staring off into nothingness. "Snap out of it!"

A slap on the face was enough to shake him out of his shock and awe. He had a horrible headache and placed his hand on his forehead before realizing he was wearing a helmet. He then looked up to Simmons who was still holding him. "What. The. Fuck."

"Grif. Are you alright? Can you move?

"Ugh! Uhh…yeah. Just a really bad headache. What the hell was that?"

Simmons turned to the covered orb and back to Grif again. He knew that that thing was not of this world. Not of this universe would probably be more accurate considering that they were on another planet.

"Grif," he said. "We do not speak a word of this to anyone. Not to Sarge. Not to Donut. Not to the Blues. No one."

"Yeah, I think I'll agree with you on that."

"This is serious. We have no idea what that thing is capable of."

"We know that it makes us high and plays the Discovery Channel."

"Grif! We don't know what it's _really _capable of. For all we know, it could be a teleportation device that could whisk us to another world where gods and demons exist and we are forced on an adventure we're not prepared for. Where we would be stuck there while fighting evil and falling in love with beautiful beings of myth and will have to become sword-wielding warriors who fight for good or perish."

There was a long pause before Grif replied, "You got that from some anime didn't you?"

"…No."

"Uh huh. Sure…"

"Okay, fine! But it wasn't an anime; it was a fan fiction of an anime. Big difference!"

When Simmons let go of Grif, the orange-clad man was about to take his blanket when Simmons stopped him.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

"I need to get my lucky blanket."

"Have you forgotten what just happened ten seconds ago? If you uncover that, it might do all that stuff I just said." Grif did not care about that. Being in a hallucination-induced coma would be better than doing stuff.

"And besides, why would you need a blanket when you're wearing full body armor with its own air conditioning?"

Grif stopped. He had a point there.

"Huh. I've never thought about that…"

"Of course you didn't. You never do!"

"Does it have a toilet, too?"

Simmons sighed and started to walk back to the base with Grif following. "Let's just get the fuck out of here. Remember: we do not breathe a word of this. This didn't happen."

* * *

Out on top of a cliff, Church ran up to his companion who was waiting for him. Tucker had been waiting up there for at least thirty minutes watching the Reds. When he finally reached him, Church gasped for air. He was not used to all this running. Whatever Tucker needs, it better be important.

"Hey, Tucker. What's going on?" He breathed heavily.

"You okay, Church?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I need to exercise a little more."

"You're a robot, dude. Why would you need exercise?"

"...good point. So what's going on, here?"

"We've got movement in the middle of the canyon. Looks like the Reds are out scouting or something."

Scouting? That was unusual. As far as Church knew, the Reds hardly did anything. All they ever did was stand around and talk. Any actual movement and activity was news for him.

"Two of them are standing at a small cave over there. They must've found something."

Tucker handed the sniper rifle to Church, who then looked through the scope. He saw two Reds, an orange one and a maroon one, just standing there with their backs turned like Tucker said. He scoffed.

"What could possibly be that interesting? There's nothing in this goddamn canyon!"

"Well they sure as hell ain't having a party."

How helpful, Tucker. Church thought about the Reds for a moment. He knew that whatever they were doing, it was not typical. Then again, nothing was typical for either team. Something strange and new was always happening. The rarity was when it involved greater scale that involves everyone and not just a few guys. Church sighed. He did not want to deal with the possibility of another series of unfortunate events that would throw him and everyone else across space and time like what happened just a few months ago.

"It's probably nothing. Look, they're going back to their base."

"How could I see that if I don't have the damn sniper rifle?"

"Oh come off it!" He lowered his rifle. "They're probably just dicking around like they always do. Come on, we're going back."

"You don't want to see what they were doing over there?"

"No. As I've said, they were probably just dicking around."

* * *

Over six hours had passed since the wolf began her travels across this strange new world. She had managed to navigate several miles of unknown forest and grasslands and had yet to encounter any hostile predators that may be present. There were several strange looking creatures and birds but none of them were as large as the wolf and posed little threat. She found it strange that in spite of the fact that this was an alien planet; life here had an uncanny resemblance to life back home.

As she traveled from the forest and towards a rather rocky area, she felt a slight cold breeze through her fur. She looked around with the hairs on her neck raised. There was something out here with her, but she could not make it out. It felt as if something was watching and it was somewhat familiar to her. The odd presence soon disappeared as quickly as it appeared. The wolf god considered the possibility that it could have been nothing, but how could she explain that she somehow knew it? Could it be that someone else might have survived? Could it have been Waka?

She tried not to think of it too much. This world was foreign and potentially dangerous to her and any distractions could prove to be detrimental or even fatal. The wolf continued on across the rocky and uneven landscape, closing in on the Ark crash site.

It was another hour before she decided to rest inside a cave that had been carved into the side of a canyon. The sun was high and bearing down on her and the rough terrain did not help. While she rested in the cool cavern, she pondered her situation. There were so many questions and virtually no answers. Where is this place? How did she get here? Is the world she left behind safe?

She thought about the humans that were aboard that other ship. They were clearly more advanced than any she had met before. Many of the words that they were saying implied that they were not from Nippon by a long shot. The strange markings on the ship alone were proof of that. She wondered about what the words said.

Her ears soon picked up a rustling noise from outside and she quickly stood up. A low growl escaped from deep within her chest, preparing herself for whatever danger may come her way. As the rustling and crunching of earth grew louder, the wolf spotted something in some bushes several meters from the grotto where she was waiting. She left the darkness of the cave and out into the open, ready to face whatever is there. What finally emerged from the foliage in full view was the strangest creature the goddess had seen yet.

It was a tall man in peculiar blue armor. The angular and somehow elegant metal suit covered the entire body, leaving no sign of skin. Even the face was completely covered by a helmet with a golden visor that gave off her reflection. In his hands was a long and boxy metal thing with a tube out of one end that she assumed was some sort of weapon. Could this be one of the humans who could travel the stars? Is this one of their soldiers?

Before she could probe into the man's mind, he spoke.

"Hello!" The wolf appeared somewhat puzzled. The man's voice was young and energetic, hardly what one would expect from what appeared to be a fearless armored warrior. "Uh, yeah I could use some help looking for something. Any suggestions would be appreciated."

What? This was most odd, indeed. Did all the humans of this world act so courteous and kind? She decided to respond. _What is it that you are looking for, young one?_

The man paused for a moment before he replied, "Yeah, I'm looking for a star that fell here last night. You must have seen it, right? It was really bright and loud."

Falling star? Surely he did not mean her? She was a sun god who fell from the heavens. Is it possible that he might know something? Strongly considering this possibility and the advantages it might bring, she took the risk and said to him, _I am that fallen star._

There was another pause as the armored man processed what she had told him. "Really?! I didn't know stars were dogs." He gasped. "Maybe that's why they have a dog star! Oh! Church is going to be so happy that I've found you. Could you please come back to our base with me? We have plenty of cookies."

The wolf's jaw slackened. Who was this man and how does his way of thinking work? Much of what he had said to her made little sense. Still, the she-wolf knew that if there were any answers to this big mystery she found herself in, it would be with this strange man and his companions. She nodded once. _I will go with you. Perhaps I could find what I am looking for._

The blue man nodded back. "I hope you are looking for cookies. We have plenty of those."

In her near infinite wisdom, the goddess had reached the conclusion that this man is probably the strangest human she had ever met in all her lives. It may be too early to tell for sure, but she could tell that there was something off about him. As she began to follow him out of the canyon, he said, "Oh, I almost forgot. My name is Michael J. Caboose. What is yours?"

She responded purely and simply, _I am the sun goddess Okami Amaterasu, the origin of all that is good and the mother to you all._

"…that's a long and funny name. Can I just call you 'Ammy'?"

* * *

**And that's the second chapter.**

**One thing to note is that some readers may find Lopez's Spanish to be bad, looking like something out of Google Translate. It is. Even in the show it was like that and I think it was meant to be. It was Sarge who built him after all.**

**I hope you have enjoyed this part, it has only just begun!**


	3. Of Gods and Morons

**Woohoo! Third chapter's done! In case you guys haven't noticed, I've put a half-way decent cover for the story. Yes, I made that drawing. **

**This chapter was supposed to be a bit shorter but there were some parts that I wanted in there. One thing that I have noticed recently is that there actually is a character in ****_Halo _****lore whose name is Preston Cole, which is a flipped version of the name for the character I made, Cole Preston. I did not know this, I swear. If I did at some point, I had forgotten it when I wrote this. If I need to change the name, please tell me.**

**Well, let's continue...**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Of Gods and Morons**

The _Divine Retribution _remained in orbit above Aegis VII licking her wounds. The crew, still a bit shaken by their ordeal, was able to repair whatever damage they could find and continue their duties. Luckily, there were no hull breaches that could not be easily plugged and no one was killed. Only seventeen people were admitted to sick bay; the worst being a rather nasty bump on the head. If it were not for the excited chatter between crew members and the missing tow hooks, it would have seemed like any normal day on a military frigate.

On the bridge, Cole was irritated. In front of him was a computer screen showing the faces of two men. One was of Admiral Charles Pickett, who was an older man with a bold face and a piercing stare. The other was of Director Church, whose face was hidden by a shadow. The only thing that could be seen was that he had a trimmed beard, cleanly-cut hair, and that he wore glasses.

Pickett cleared his throat and said, "I appreciate your concerns about this matter but the protocol was clear, Director. Your disregard for it has very nearly cost us a ship and its crew."

"I only did what was deemed necessary." Church said. "The time it would have taken to observe such procedures would have been too long. The alien vessel would have crashed long before we would have even touched it."

Cole leaned forward. "Even if it meant putting my crew at risk?" he asked. He did not know why he asked since he already knew the answer.

"That ship could have had invaluable technology and knowledge that could benefit humanity as a whole. While I did not expect such an…unexpected reaction, I am sure we could all agree that we have lost many important artifacts that would prove useful to us."

Pickett raised an eyebrow. "I can't believe you would have the guts to say that in front of me. I would normally have you out of this but Central Command, in all its wisdom, decided that you would provide assistance in the salvaging operations. The Director has resources that would make things go a little bit smoother down there." Church nodded and his image flickered out of existence, leaving the face of Pickett on the screen. Cole blinked. The Admiral could not be serious. "Commander Preston, I want you to return to Alpha Station for any repairs needed for your ship." That sounds reasonable. "Then you will remain in high orbit above Aegis VII. You will receive further instructions once you reach the coordinates we will send you."

"Yes, sir. May I ask if I am going to be kept in the loop?"

Pickett sighed and took a breath. "Unfortunately not." Cole clenched his teeth. While he understood that a discovery of this magnitude would require some secrecy, he did not appreciate the idea that Command would just hang him up to dry after nearly being killed by the thing. Would they tell him _anything _about what it was that put his ship and crew at risk? "Look, I understand how you feel and if I had my way I would at least have you send some people down to assist but ever since that thing showed up, things got a little hectic here." Really? All the top brass ever did was only read reports as far was Cole was concerned. How was that hectic? Pickett continued, "ONI's sure as hell making things difficult."

"ONI?"

"They've been sending troops and supplies to Aegis VII and a lot of security that requires security clearance beyond even my pay grade." ONI, also known as the Office of Naval Intelligence, was the UNSC's intelligence branch and primary subject of nearly all conspiracy theories. Involuntarily, Cole let out a low growl. The Commander did not think highly of the spooks. He had plenty of reasons not to trust them.

"Doesn't it seem kind of strange that ONI had people here long before the alien ship was anywhere near Aegis?" He had overheard some of his crew talking about the spooks and how they were seen on the planet's surface in recent days. The commander did not think much of it since he considered them to be mere rumors; at least until he and his 500 meter-long frigate was pulled thousands of kilometers by a mystical space yacht with little effort.

"Believe me, you're not the only one who has noticed and I can't do much about that." Pickett said. "However, I can ask you to send Dr. Miles down to the crash site to help the other scientists recover and analyze whatever artifacts are down there."

Cole raised an eyebrow. "Miles? Why her?"

"Her background states that she has extensive knowledge of Forerunner technology. The doctor has more than enough expertise for CENTCOM to trust her with this sort of thing. I have already sent her a notice. She will disembark within two hours."

The commander nodded. He knew that Ellen knew quite a bit about the Forerunners. She certainly knew more than Cole could ever hope to, but he never knew she knew enough to be allowed in highly classified operations apparently. He did not show it, but he was concerned. Did she really tell the truth about not knowing about the ship? Did she work for ONI?

"I understand."

"I know you're a bit disappointed about not being involved," Pickett said. "But I don't need you to risk your life and career on this."

_I already did just a few hours ago…_"Of course, sir."

"Good. At least we didn't lose you like the _Golden Mallet. _That's one good thing about all this. I'll contact you in 24 hours. Pickett out."

The Admiral's face was replaced by the globe and phoenix emblem of the UNSC. Cole sighed and thought deeply. There was a lot about this that felt odd; the Director of some unrelated project given access to the crash site, ONI being present since day one, and of course the alien ship itself. Something did not feel right but he could not find the words to express it. He certainly needed to talk to Ellen about this and was about to leave to do so when he heard Polasky speak to himself. He and Cole were the only ones on the dimly-lit bridge.

"Would someone please tell me what the happened to the _Golden Mallet_?!"

The commander glanced at the young helmsman and said as he walked away, "You don't want to know."

When Cole left, Polasky was left sitting quietly in the bridge by himself. "But I really do, though!"

* * *

When Church saw it, he could not believe it. Just when he was about to have a halfway decent day, it gets taken away from him in the form of Caboose. He and Tucker could only watch in shock when Caboose called out to them and walked back to the base. It had only been a few hours, yet the kid was able to come back. Did he find a meteorite this early, or did he just grab a rock and thought that was it? But, what really surprised him was what was trotting alongside Caboose. When Blue Team's official idiot entered the base and met the others on the roof, what followed was a white wolf. Church was almost (but not quite) in awe of its snow white coat. It was the purest white he had ever seen on an animal. The wolf sat down beside Caboose, looking bored. Church could not wait to hear about this one.

"Where the hell did you get that?" Church asked.

"Get what? The gun? You gave it to me." Caboose answered.

"I mean the dog, dumbass."

Caboose looked at the wolf and back to Church again. "Oh, you mean Ammy? She followed me."

"The dog followed you," Church said.

"Yeah, I think she likes me."

"Why," Tucker asked. "Because she might need you for food?"

"No man, that's our job," Church replied and paused for a moment. "Wait a minute. Ammy? You named the dog 'Ammy'?"

"Yes! No wait, uh, no. Uhm yeah, it's short for some long fancy name I can't pronounce." _Every long name is too hard for you to pronounce. _Church thought.

"What kind of name is that for a wolf?" Tucker asked.

"That's a wolf?" Church said.

"Of course it is. It's pretty big for a dog."

It was a bit difficult for him to accept that this was a wolf. Wolves are supposed to be extinct. Church looked at the wolf and did notice its huge size. It was clearly big enough to take on all three of them at once. The wolf yawned, revealing a set of many sharp teeth and a gaping maw wide enough to fit a hand through. However, Tucker definitely had a point there and it is making him uneasy.

"Well that's fantastic. Now our resident idiot has a pet wild animal that could maul us in our sleep."

"Look at the bright side, Church. If Caboose manages to tame her, that wolf would make an awesome guard dog! No Red would ever be able to sneak into our base again!" He had a point there too but Church knew that Tucker wanted more out of it than that. "And having a wolf for a pet would be an awesome way to pick up chicks." Ah, there it is.

Ignoring Tucker's comment, Church asked Caboose where he found the wolf.

"Oh, I was just looking for the falling star like you told me to and I found Ammy lying there all by herself." _How the hell did he not get eaten?_ Church thought. Even more importantly, what the hell is a wolf doing on an alien planet?

"Then I heard her lady voice in my head telling me that she's is good and I asked if she could come with me. She also wanted cookies."

"You're saying that as if that thing is smart," Church said. He assumed that Caboose and his twisted mind had made that up. There is no way that a wolf could talk to him.

Almost immediately, the wolf let an almost human "Huh?" and growled at him with teeth bared and hackles raised. No one knew how, but the wolf was mad.

Tucker took a step back. "Uh oh. Looks like you pissed her off, Church. You might want to take that back."

Church also took a step back and was ready to use his sniper rifle if the wolf turned out to be hostile. Not like it would have helped considering Church's marksmanship. He was shocked. "It can understand me?!"

Unknown to him, a warm feminine voice rang out in the minds of Church's teammates. _"More than you know."_

There was a moment of silence and Tucker managed to utter a "What?" before Caboose said, "Did I forget to mention that she has telephoenetic powers?"

* * *

As the Blues ponder over their lupine visitor, they were being watched by Grif and Simmons some distance away from them. Simmons was actually the one doing the watching while Grif just stood there pretending to even care. Because of his self-imposed ignorance, Grif asked for the third time, "What are they doing?"

"Doing the same thing they have been doing for the past ten minutes."

"Which is?"

Simmons lowered his sniper rifle and looked at Grif incredulously. "I told you ten minutes ago, Grif! One of them went out of the caves with a wolf and brought it to their base."

"Which one?" Grif asked. "The mean one, the annoying one, or the stupid one?"

"The stupid one."

"What could they possibly need a wolf for? What would 'Caboose' need a wolf for"

"I don't know. Probably as a pet or a guard dog or something." Simmons looked through the rifle's scope again. He got a good look at the wolf. It was quite large and had fur so white he could see it without the scope. He did not notice it, but something nagged at the back of Simmons' mind. There was something familiar about that wolf. It reminded him of that wolf he saw in the orb earlier. No, he should not think about that. That was nothing. Before he could continue pondering about it, Grif interrupted his thoughts.

"Are you sure that's a wolf? Aren't wolves extinct or something?"

Simmons shot Grif a glance. "I'm sure it's a wolf. It's too big to be a dog."

"Have you ever seen a wolf?"

"No!" Simmons put lowered his rifle again and threw up his arm in frustration. "Would it matter whether or not it's a wolf? Maybe we should just call it the big fluffy thing with teeth. Does that make you feel better?"

"That depends. How fluffy is it?"

"Jesus!"

Before Simmons could blow a mental gasket, Sarge ran up to them. "Simmons, what do we got here?"

"The Blues have a new addition to their army, sir!"

Sarge gripped his shotgun. "Diabolical! Looks like the Blues have called for reinforcements! No doubt that they are preparing for an attack!"

"An attack?" Grif said. "The only thing they have out there is a dog!"

"Wolf!" Simmons corrected.

"That hardly counts as reinforcements."

"Of course it is!" Sarge said. "Everyone knows that dogs are man's best friend. Those razor sharp teeth and intense loyalty would make a perfect addition to the Blues and their fiendish plans!"

Though Grif was used to this way of thinking, he could not help but look at him in shock. The Blues could hardly control their tank. Hell, they could hardly control themselves. How could they possibly be able to even tame a wolf?

"There's only one way to find out what they're up to. Grif! Go over there and take a closer look. See what they're up to."

Grif did not like the sound of that. "What? Me?! Why me?"

"We need to know what those dastardly Blues are up to!"

"But, but I can't go out there!"

Sarge stiffened up. "Why not, numbnuts?"

"I don't like dogs!"

"You don't like them any more than you don't like bullets?" Sarge pumped his shotgun for emphasis.

"You wouldn't do that."

Sarge aims his shotgun at Grif. This is not the first time and it will not be the last. "Simmons, I'll give ya a promotion if you help me shoot Grif."

"Really?!" said Simmons.

Grif began to back away. "Alright fine, I'm going. I'm going!" And thus, he was gone. For the moment.

Sarge turned to Simmons and said, "Simmons, get the warthog ready. We are going to launch a pre-emptive strike."

"Um, what about Grif, sir?"

"Don't worry about him. He's no longer an issue at the moment."

* * *

Amaterasu took in whatever information she could about these people. They were dressed much like the blue armored people of before but they did not seem no where near as fanatical. Their intelligence left a lot to be desired and this left Her concerned. Despite his apparent stupidity, the one named "Caboose" was the easiest for Her to speak to. His child-like mindset allowed her to speak with him freely and she suspects that he could even see the goddess' true form from the moment they first met. Caboose never asked about so she could not be sure. He is certainly the friendliest human she has met so far.

She heard very little about his "teammates", though he did seem to have a high regard towards someone called "Church". The wolf only had a vague idea to what these people were like until she followed Caboose to their base. Her meeting with them was not as pleasant as she had hoped.

There were only two others, wearing identical armor though one was teal colored and the other was lighter shade of blue. As the three Blues spoke and bickered about her, Amaterasu quickly found out that there was something truly wrong with these people. The first few seconds of their conversation were rude and inconsiderate. They, especially the light blue one, shown her little respect and she did not take kindly to that.

When She looked into the mind of the one named, "Tucker", what She found was an immature and childish mind filled with thoughts so perverted, Issun would be normal by comparison. The other, she was not so sure. For some reason, she could not read the mind of Church. She could not even feel even the faintest hint of life. Her senses told her that he was completely lifeless, yet here he was insulting her; a goddess. What was he?

The Goddess stopped growling at them after Her little telepathic message was enough to shut them up. She was no longer surprised by their ignorance of the gods and their powers. This was not her world.

Tucker was the first to speak. "Dude, no way. There is no way that this is real."

_"It is very much real, Lavernius Tucker_,_"_she answered. The voice was obviously female, but it was a very soothing voice yet it did not sound weak at all. It was authoritative. Tucker did not care for that at the moment.

"What the? How the hell do you know my name?!"

"Oh, yeah. You see," Caboose said. "She isn't just a telephoenetic. She can read minds. It's kinda cool!"

"More like disturbing."

_"Not as disturbing as your thoughts, which involve rather unflattering fantasies about me."_ she said. He looked at the wolf. It was looking at him, giving no sign that it spoke but somehow he knew that the voice belonged to it. It was in the eyes.

"Wha? You've gotta be kidding me!"

Caboose raised a hand. "Ooh, what am I thinking about, Ammy?"

"Ten bucks says it's nothing," Tucker said.

_"Nothing really. There's not much in there."_ She was exaggerating somewhat. Of course there was something in Caboose's mind, but it did not feel as if it were fully grown. It felt as if he were only a child in an adult's body. Amaterasu wondered what had happened to him that made him this way. She wondered why everyone here was this way.

Church stepped forward and spoke for the first time in a short while.

"Uh, hello? Super confused guy right here! Will someone please explain what the hell is going on?"

"You didn't hear her, Church?" Tucker asked.

"Hear what?"

"The wolf! I think she's got telepathy or something."

Church could not believe what he is hearing. He knew that Tucker was a bit stupid, but not stupid enough to believe in that stuff. For the past few minutes, he heard him and Caboose talking as if there was another speaker present. It certainly was not Church and it could not be the wolf. He heard nothing from the wolf. All it only stared at him with those creepy black eyes. Pupil less black eyes. Church mentally noted how unnatural and eerie they were.

"I don't hear anything. You better not be losing it, Tucker."

"I'm not losing anything!" Tucker turned to face the wolf. "Yo, wolf! Say something to him or tell us what he's thinking."

"Tucker," Caboose said. "The 'wolf' has a name."

"What's her name, then?"

_"Okami Amaterasu."_

When she spoke the words in a dignified and almost regal manner, the wind seemed to calm and the sun appeared a bit brighter. No one noticed. Instead, Tucker just stared at her and she stared right back.

"I'll have to agree with Caboose on that one. 'Ammy' is much easier to say than...that."

Church threw his hands up in the air. "Well, it's official. Tucker has finally lost his mind and I'm the only sane one in this fucking canyon!"

"Look, I'm not crazy! Ask Caboose, he could hear her too!"

Caboose? Really, Tucker?

"Caboose isn't exactly the most reliable source for gauging sanity," Church rebuked.

"Yes," Caboose said. "I am only the second reliable source for sanitary. The first one belongs to Captain Funnel Cake!"

Church pointed at him and nearly chuckled at that. "See?"

As the two continued bickering, Amaterasu tried to probe into the Church's mind and essence. She could sense nothing. Nothing alive, at least. Church was not mostly empty like Caboose was. It was completely devoid of life. She tried to stare him down past the gold-plated helmet. A god like her was adept at seeing into the very souls of people, yet she saw nothing. How could this be? This man was clearly alive with a physical body and a full personality. She must know who this man is.

"Oh, come on! Ammy, could you at least say something to him?"

Apparently she would not be able to even if she tried. The wolf continued to stare at Church. This was not lost on the Blues. Tucker uttered an, "Uhh..." while Church verbally responded to Amaterasu's stare.

"Okay, that look is beginning to scare me, fleabag."

_"Who is this man?"_

"That's Church!" Caboose chimed. "He's my super best friend!"

Amaterasu wondered why anyone would be best friends with this mean, and apparently lifeless, jerk. But she reminded herself of what she learned of Caboose, knowing that he is quite strange for a man and she stopped probing his mind thirty minutes ago.

"Caboose," Church said. "Shut up. The dumb mutt isn't talking to you."

"It might not be a good idea to insult the intelligent wolf with psychic powers, Church." Tucker said. "Who knows what other powers she's got."

He had no idea how right he was considering that their "guest" was a sun goddess who had the power to manipulate the very heavens if She wished. They will know soon enough; especially the one insulting her. She will certainly humble him.

"The only power this thing has is to power to make me feel uncomfortable."

"I'm comfortable when she's around me," Caboose said. Tucker took a second to think a little. He felt strangely at peace for some reason.

"Now that you mentioned it, Caboose, I do feel kinda peaceful since she showed up. It's kind of weird."

Church _really_ could not believe what he was hearing. He could see nothing remarkable about this flea-ridden mutt yet his own team was acting as if it were freaking Lassie! Next, they might go and ask it to retrieve little boys trapped in wells or something. Wait, that did not make sense considering there are no little boys living on an alien planet, though Caboose may be an exception to that. That did not matter. Church did not want to see his team go crazier than they already were. That is never good news.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

"What's wrong with me? You're the only one who can't hear what we can."

This was getting out of hand. Amaterasu did not have time for this. She needed to find a way home and these guys are Her best bet so far and she will be damned if these Grade-A morons take that chance away.

She called out to them. They still bickered.

"I'm not the one who's hearing voices!" Church said.

"CAN YOU HEAR ME, CHURCH?" Caboose shouted. "CAN YOU HEAR MY VOICE?! I HOPE YOU'RE NOT DEAF!"

"Caboose, shut up!" Tucker yelled back.

"NOW TUCKER IS BEING MEAN TO ME! DID YOU HEAR THAT, CHURCH?!"

"I am not deaf, Caboose. Tucker is just hearing things."

"That's bullshit!" Tucker interjected.

That was it. This mindless bickering had to stop and she had to be the one to do it. There was no use trying to be reasonable. The goddess stepped in between Tucker and Church and screamed at them.

**_"ENOUGH!"_**

* * *

Back at Red base, Sarge was assisting Lopez and Simmons with the jeep when he stopped. He looked towards the other end of the canyon and back to his comrades. They stopped as well, but only in response to him.

"What is it, Sarge?" Simmons asked.

"Did you hear something?"

"Hear what?"

"I thought I heard a woman scream."

"No he oído nada." Lopez said.  
**_I didn't hear anything._**

"Oh, I heard a woman scream, too. What do you think that's about?"

"¿En serio? ¿De verdad que gran parte de un culo beso?"  
**_Seriously? Are you that much of a kiss ass?_**

"I knew it! The Blues are up to something truly diabolical! No doubt they are torturing one of our own!"

"They don't have anybody except...Sister?!"

"No lo creo. Dejó el cañón hace unas semanas por alguna de las partes. Lo sé porque ella trató de invitar."  
**_I don't think so. She left the canyon a few weeks back for some party. I know because she tried to invite me._**

"Hot damn, Lopez! You're right!" Sarge said. "They must be torturing her for information! We need to hurry!"

"O tal vez esos idiotas han encontrado a otra mujer psicótica."  
**_Or maybe those idiots have found themselves another psychotic woman._**

* * *

Church had no idea what had happened but whatever it was it shut Tucker up. Bad news was now there was a very angry wolf standing between them. He did not know how it happened except it just jumped in between them and growled, no, 'roared' at them. It freakin' roared! It was the most unearthly sound he had ever heard. Both of them had jumped back, nearly falling on their backs. Even Caboose backed up a bit. Just what kind of animal was this mutt?! He had no idea why but he shouted at the wolf, "Hey! What the fuck's wrong with you, mutt?!"

The wolf shot him a snarl. Clearly she understood what he said.

Tucker managed to find his voice and said, "Whoa, Ammy. Calm down."

She looked at Tucker, snarling furiously. _"I said, "Enough!" I do not need to hear any more of your meaningless bickering!"_

Tucker shrugged his shoulders. "Eh, it's part of our charm."

"We've gotten a lot of practice at it!" Caboose said, forgetting that Ammy had just yelled at him.

_"Listen. I do not know who you are or where this place is. You are as clueless about me as I of you, so how about we just start over for a moment and get ourselves more acquainted with each other?"_

"Uh, okay," said Tucker.

Church did not say anything. He did not want to upset this wolf any more. He still did not believe that the wolf is actually communicating with his teammates, but he certainly knew that something was up and it could not just be his team going nuts. They were talking to the wolf as if it were intelligent and if it were speaking back. It may be possible, but Church doubted it. He sure as hell did not hear anything but at least the wolf stopped growling and sat back down, never letting down her intense gaze upon them.

Before the wolf could continue, her ears perked up. _"What is that?"_ She thought.

"What is what?" Tucker said.

"That is Tucker," Caboose said.

She looked to the hills, her sensitive ears listening to a strange sound that was growing a bit louder. She walked over to the edge of the base, trying to discern the sound. It sounded like music.

"Hey, Amaterasit! What's going on!?" Tucker said.

Church was about to lose it. "Amaterasit?" He could not take this anymore. His team has gone truly bonkers and now he would have to deal with that, all because of a stupid wolf. He muttered, "This cannot be happening."

"Of course it is, Church," Caboose told him. "There's always something happening. Otherwise, there will always be nothing!"

_"Quiet. Do you hear that?"_

"No," said Tucker. "No, wait, yeah. Is that music?"

"This cannot be happening!" Church repeated.

Tucker joined Ammy just to see a familiar jeep jump off a hill blasting Tejano music. The wolf quickly jumped off the base and landed to face the oncoming Reds, snarling furiously. She could hear one of them shouting in a heavy accent, "There it is, Simmons! Shoot it!" Another one responded, "Yeah, suck it Blues!" The large turret started spewing shells, unleashing a torrent of bullets in her direction. She tried to dodge them, but the rate of fire was quicker than she anticipated and several bullets grazed her shoulders. She decided to take cover behind a rock until the jeep passes by. The wounds did not hurt that much .

"Hey, Ammy! Where are you going?!" Tucker yelled.

"That's it! I'm going to shoot that mutt!" Church said as he loaded his sniper rifle. He slammed the clip into the weapon and ran up to the edge of the roof.

Tucker turned around. "I don't think that's a good idea, Church. You don't know what she's capable of!"

"I don't care! I'm not going to get myself killed because my team goes nuts over a dog!"

He aims his rifle at the wolf and takes a takes a shot. He misses by a very great margin.

"Fuck!"

Amaterasu noticed the missed shot and screamed at Church even though she knew he could not hear her. _"What are you doing?!"_

Church answers with three more shots. They also missed.

"Oh, come on! What the fuck is wrong with the sights on this thing?!"

The goddess had no time for this and she expressed that to them even if they did not listen. She will no longer hold back any more because of their astounding ignorance. She will show them Her powers if that is what it takes for them to stop fighting and help her, and perhaps help each other. The Reds came around for another pass, continuing to fire rounds at her. She could hear the Reds shouting at each other.

"Right over there, Donut!"

"I don't know about this, Sarge. This seems kinda cruel."

"It's a Blue! There's nothing that can't be done to a Blue that's cruel. Just run it over!"

She knew what they were trying to do and she knew just how to deal with it. Standing her ground, the wolf stared down the headlights of the oncoming warthog. Just as it came within fifteen feet of her, the wolf raised her tail and the most unexpected thing happened. Suddenly and without warning, something sprouted out from underneath the jeep with great force. It took a second for the Reds (and the spectating Blues) to realize that it was a tree. A tree that spontanously grew from nothing to twenty feet high. The sudden impact of it caused the jeep to fly off the ground for a good thirty feet in the air, flipping several times. Sarge and Donut were flung out of their seats while Simmons was hanging on to the turret for dear life as the warthog came crashing down. When it crashed and tumbled across the field, Simmons was able to let go and he fell to face first into the dirt. When it finally hit a rock, the jeep was completely wrecked and the engine soon exploded for no apparent reason. Miraculously, the Reds were unscathed.

As Simmons walked dizzily to his comrades, he said what was on everyone's minds, "What the hell just happened?"

"It's Mother Nature!" Donut shouted. "She's here to punish us for trying to kill her creations!"

Amaterasu walked toward them with a cautious but confident stride, looking at them with a highly focused stare. Sarge noticed her and said, "Get ready, men. That critter is about to make a final strike. We've got to be prepared for anything it might throw at us!"

"How could you possibly be prepared for a tree suddenly growing from right underneath us out of fucking nowhere? That is something that is physically impossible! How could you be prepared for that?!" Simmons almost yelled.

"Hmm, good point," Sarge replied. He looked to the she-wolf who was well within her striking range and yelled out, "Hey, Blue! What are your last words before we blast you to bits?!"

"I doubt it's going to answer back, Sarge."

Donut suddenly fell to his knees and lowered his head. "Please forgive us, O White One! We see the error in our ways!"

"What are you doing?" Sarge asked.

"Leave us in peace and we will leave You in peace!"

"It's a wolf, Donut," Simmons said. "It's not like it's gonna understand you."

The wolf snapped at them and growled loudly. That was the second time today that Amaterasu's intelligence was mocked. She understood that these people knew nothing of the gods but their arrogance was getting too much for her to handle. She was, however, sympathetic to the pink one since he was the only one of them to show even a shred of respect to her.

Sarge and Simmons were seemingly unfazed by her comeback but Donut was losing it. "Why are you looking at me like that? I didn't mean to try and run you over!"

Sarge reloaded his shotgun and brandished it. He did not know what the wolf was doing and he did not want to find out. "Hey! We haven't heard the last words from you yet! How are we going to settle this properly?!"

"I-I'm sorry! We're all sorry! Simmons, you're sorry, right?"

"A wolf, causing that?" Simmons pointed at the tree. "That's not possible."

"What else could have caused that?"

"It's a wolf! It's only capable of two things: eating and howling."

"Sarge?"

"Apologize to a Blue?! Why would I do that? You must mistake me for someone else."

Finally having enough of this, the wolf called out to them. _"Your apology is accepted."_

The response was not dissimilar from that of the Blues. They stared at her for a moment before they all broke the awkward silence. "...Huh?"

* * *

Sergeant Martin Kane had been sitting inside the cramped space of a Pelican for at least twenty minutes and already he was in a bad mood. Sharing in his dread were five other marines and a civilian. He was not sure what to think of the woman. Sure, where they were going was teeming with eggheads but Kane felt that Dr. Miles knew something that he did not. The fact that his squad was sent down to protect her at the crash site did not make him easy. All he was told was that a spacecraft of undetermined origin crashed here. That was all he and probably 95% of the men working down there knew. His men, and even himself had an air of great uncertainty. The lack of information did not help. The doctor did not seem as uncertain. She was too calm.

As the Pelican continued it's descent, one of the marines leaned over to the woman and asked, "Hey, what are you here for?"

She looked at him blankly. "Oh, I don't know. Trying to figure out an artifact that may benefit the human race or something? I'm certainly not here to be your personal entertainment."

Several of the marines looked at each other and chuckled amongst themselves.

"Bit a joker, eh Doc?" another marine said.

"Theoretical physicist, actually." she replied.

"Another egghead. That figures."

Kane raised his hand. "Enough, people. We're just a security detail. Nothing more. I don't want to hear any more bitching about it. Surely you can handle a little thing like that."

That shut them up. For a while, anyway. A few more minutes passed without a word spoken. The marines soon got irritated, not by their guest or the cramped space, but by Mozart blaring over the loudspeakers. Inevitably, one man asked, "Why do we have to listen to this old stuff, Sarge?"

"Watch your mouth. This 'stuff' is your history. It should remind you what you're fighting to protect!"

"I don't know about you, Sarge; but I didn't join the Corps to listen to freakin Vivaldi!"

"Yeah," one marine concurred.

"It's Mozart, you jackass! A true classic that has lasted for nearly a thousand years," Kane replied.

The young marine turned to his peer and said, "If it really is that great, then how come nobody listens to it anymore? I certainly wouldn't mind if this particular part of my culture gets wiped out by whatever's out there."

"Yeah," said another. "Better it than us!"

Kane glared at his men. "Maybe you could ask the freaky genocidal aliens that the next time you see them, Kaseem. I'm sure they'll be more than happy to grant your wish."

Soon, a female voice over the intercom was heard. It was the pilot. "We are approaching the LZ. We'll be landing in less than five. Hope you enjoyed the ride, boys!"

Miles held back a snort, thinking about the pilot's not mentioning of her being there. She chose not think too hard on it as she felt the landing craft stop with a soft thud. The rear door slowly opened, revealing a sight full of tents, parked warthogs, and platoons of men going about their duties. The sun was shining brightly, nearly blinding her. The men stood up and stepped off the dropship. She picked up her bags and followed them outside.

The doctor took in her surroundings. The air felt more open than she had experienced in previous military installations. Sure, there were plenty of things here that suggested otherwise: the dull buildings, the vehicles, the men barking at each other. But here, the place did not feel as closed in and artificial like long-standing fortresses and spacecraft. She figured it was the rushed nature of the operation combined with the surrounding area of mountains and forests. In the distance, she could see the large hulk of the spacecraft; well, whatever is left of it. It was now just a big heap of metal in the middle of a grassy field. Surrounding the massive mess of alien spacecraft was the military compound, complete with men and vehicles rushing to and fro. It was quite a sight.

She soon overheard some of the marines as they left the pelican.

"Thank god we don't have to listen to that anymore!"

"Yeah, you got that right. That Beethoven crap was getting to me."

"It's Mozart!"

Miles heard the sound of boots approaching from behind. She turned to see Sergeant Kane run up to her. He cracked a smile. "Interesting place, eh Doc?"

She replied with a scoff, noticing the four other marines catch up. "Yes. Very interesting…"

As they started walking down the path to the main compound, Miles noticed two men approaching. One was a young man with short hair in a civilian outfit. He had little hair on him and was wearing sunglasses. The other was what really caught her attention. It was a man wearing steel-colored armor with yellow trim, but it was not the sort that the marines were wearing. It was MJLONIR armor; the same armor worn by the famous Spartans that proved vital to humanity's survival. This armor was the toughest suit humans have built, designed to deflect bullets and absorb explosions. However, Miles knew that this was not a Spartan. For one thing, he was too short.

When the two groups met, the man with sunglasses spoke first. "Ah, you must Doctor Ellen Miles. My name is Yori Hiroto. I am the one in charge of the retrieval and on-site analysis of any artifacts found here. And this…" He pointed to the armored man standing next to him. "This is Agent Washington of Project Freelancer."

Washington nodded and said, "Hello."

Miles mentally shook her head. She heard about the Freelancer Project and what it was created for. The only thing she really knew was that Freelancers were soldiers who tested new equipment, but there was more to that but she could never find out what.

She nodded back to him. "You must be the one sent to assist us in our little operation here."

"That is correct, Doctor Miles. I am here to help with security surrounding the artifact."

Kane scoffed. "As if there isn't enough security to go around. I mean, all this for a lifeless spaceship?"

"What do you mean, Sergeant?" Hiroto asked. As if on cue, a Scorpion tank rolled past them. Soon afterward, two fully armed warthogs drove by.

The Sergeant held up his finger and pointed at the vehicles driving away. "That is what I mean."

"I believe that you of all people would understand the old adage: "Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.' We have no idea what we're dealing with here."

"I of all people?" Kane looked away for minute before gazing into Yori's brown eyes.

"You know damn well what I'm talking about."

"Do you?"

Suddenly, a burst of static interrupted the tense conversation between them and a voice rang out from a handheld radio on Yori's person.

_"Dr. Hiroto! This is Salvage Team Delta, are you there?"_

He did not avert his eyes from the soldier's as he picked up the radio and spoke into it. "This is Hiroto. What is it?"

_"We found something. We believe it is a survivor." _

Everyone froze and looked at each other momentarily. They all saw that the look of concern and each other's faces. This may be serious news. Hiroto pushed the button again. "What can you tell me about it?"

The next thing that everyone heard would be something that they all would not easily forget because it is something they all did not ever expect to hear under any circumstances in their strange and unique lives. _"It's human. It's a man wearing funny lightish red clothes." _

As the men listened in confusion, there was another voice on radio. _"It's not lightish red, you idiot! It's pink. The guy's wearing pink clothes." _

* * *

**And there's that chapter. I do not know how long the next one is gonna take considering the holidays and all. The next one may actually take a while but I will get it done. **

**Thank you for taking the time to read this and as always, leave any reviews and comments you may have and I'll see you next time. **


	4. More Answers Lead to More Questions

**Finally! I got this chapter done. Sorry about the wait but this part was really kicking my arse. I was not particularly fond of writing this one but at least's it's done. Hope you enjoy it.**

* * *

**Chapter 4: More Answers Lead to More Questions**

The Reds had stared at the white wolf for at least five minutes without a word, not unlike that of the Blues from before. As much as she probably should, Ammy chose not to look into the minds of these "Reds". She would rather have them reveal their personalities the old fashioned way. Not only did she find the mental probing somewhat rude, the goddess figured that the information she took in from their insane minds to be too much even for her. There were plenty of colorful characters that she had met back home, but these people were far and beyond when it came to idiocy. This time, she was the one who broke the awkward silence.

_"Am I that much of a surprise to you people?"_

"Someone tell me I'm hallucinating," Simmons said. "I did not just hear a woman's voice in my head."

Ammy growled quietly. _ "Yes, you are. And you have not answered my question."_

"I knew it!" Sarge cried. "This could only be a trap made by our worst enemy! First the Blues get a vicious dog and now they got it to talk." He looked down and shook his helmet. "Damn you Blues and your sneaky schemes!"

Amaterasu could only sigh. It seems that these Reds are not much different from the Blues. She could hardly wait to learn of their personalities...

"I for one welcome our telepathic lupine overlord!" Donut chimed.

"Shut up, Donut," said Simmons. "Wolves can't have telepathy!"

"They said that wolves can't magically grow trees either." He pointed at the tree which stood high and proud, showing no sign of damage from the jeep it destroyed. Oddly, it seemed greener than it was before.

Amaterasu turned to hear a voice shout out, "Hey Ammy, hold up!" Tucker was approaching them with Caboose and Church following. Tucker ran up to the Reds, breathing heavily. "...Wait, don't hurt them. I can explain."

"Explain what?" Simmons asked. "Explain why I'm hearing a voice in my head that my mind believes belongs to a white wolf? Don't worry, it's already been explained as a hallucination."

"What? No, it's not a hallucination, she's real! But, she won't hurt anyone. She's with us."

Sarge quietly growled and mumbled, "See?"

"You know her?" Donut asked.

"Not really. We were going to until you idiots showed up."

When Caboose and Church finally caught up with them, Caboose said, "Wow! That was awesome! Did you do that, Ammy?"

"The mutt didn't do anything except drive everyone but me insane." Church muttered. She could not help but growl slightly at that. Is what she had essentially performed a miracle not good enough for him? If only she could somehow communicate with him; she would be more than happy to humble him.

Simmons spoke up. "'Ammy?' What kind of name is that for a wolf?"

"That's what I said until I found out it was much easier to say than Amaterwhatever." Tucker replied.

The wolf perked her ears at that. She did not take kindly to that rather pathetic attempt at saying her name. Still she sat there listening to them bickering amongst themselves, hoping that it would stop soon. It would not be desirable for the goddess to show even more of her powers just yet. Any more miracles may invoke a rather aggressive response from these people. She had to find out more about this world and its ways if she is to find a solution to this mess.

"Now let's not go insulting pretty ladies with superpowers..." Caboose said.

"I'm not insulting her, Caboose," Tucker replied. "I just think she could've had a better name."

Sarge finally stepped in. He had something to figure out and he had to know now. "Alright, Blues. What is it that you're planning? Tryin' to recruit the animal kingdom to your wicked Blue ways?!"

Church looked at him surprised for hundredth time. "What?! The mutt just got here! It's not my fault that a dumb dog kicked your asses."

"Who kicked what now!? You want to settle this Bluebot!?"

"Are you kidding," Tucker interjected. "How are you gonna settle anything if we have the wolf with supernatural powers?! What do you have against that?"

Amaterasu's jaw hung in shock. Their idiocy and arrogance was shocking even to a god like her. What has happened to these people? She knew that they have been here for some time. Alone. Is this what years of isolation could do to two groups of people?

She expressed her thoughts purely and simply, _"What is wrong with you people…?"_

"Hey! Can it, Bluedog!" Sarge told her. The quick and aggressive response caused her to bare her teeth a bit. "We're in the middle of a standoff! The fate of the galaxy rests at this very moment!"

_"What?" _She shook her lupine head. How could these two groups of morons hold the fate of the world? These people could hardly hold themselves together as far as she knew. Suddenly, a scream took everyone's attention from her and they all looked to the source of the sound. At a canyon wall was a cave; the one Ammy and Caboose left. Sarge asked, "What was that?"

What answered him was a rumble, possibly from an explosion. Another cry was heard. It was that of an older man that the Reds recognized.

"Was that Grif?" Simmons asked. It was. Grif was seen running out of the cave in great panic and shooting wildly at whatever may be inside. Not looking at where he was going, he tripped on a rock and fell on his back. The men could see some creatures flying out of the cave. Everyone recognized the small and numerous creatures as bats. Sarge chuckled. He knew of Grif's irrational fear of the flying rodents. He was even more satisfied after hearing him scream at them as Grif shot at them.

"Goddamn bats! Shoo! SHOO!"

Neither his screams nor his bullets deterred them. The dozens of bats flew around him and their combined chirping and squeaking made an overwhelming wail of noise. It was not until the wolf, followed by the Reds and Blues, ran over to him that they flew off and disappeared out of the canyon. She approached Grif's still form. He was alive but in shock.

Simmons was first human to arrive. He stood over his fellow Red. "Hey Grif, are you okay?"

"Don't answer him, Grif!" Sarge interrupted. "I don't want to hear that you're still alive. At least give me the decency to make me think you're dead!"

The wolf squeezed her way between the two Reds, standing over Grif. She looked the orange-clad man, noticing that he was somewhat chubbier than the others. She did not really want to but she stared through the visor and into the man's soul. That slight mental nudge at the stagnant and filthy brain shook him out of his fear-induced shock as he shot his head up and screamed like a little girl. Ammy stepped off of him and Grif suddenly…sneezed.

It was a sneeze loud enough to scare birds and other creatures from half a mile away. Grif looked around to see his fellow Reds and something he did not want to see. Upon seeing the white wolf, he screamed. "AHH! Get that dog away from me!"

"Grif! You're alive!" Donut said cheefully.

When he heard that, Sarge mumbled to himself. For him, it was another wasted opportunity. He was hoping that he could at least see the wolf feast upon Grif's body. It would have been the best day he would ever witness. Unknown to him, Amaterasu knew of these thoughts but she said nothing.

Donut offered Grif his hand. He took it and was now on his feet. "I see you made some friends."

"Friends!? Those weren't friends. Those were bats!"

"Grif," Simmons said, recalling a similar experience involving Grif's phobia and a dark cave. "Bats are two-pound flying rats. What could they possibly do to hurt you?"

"I don't like bats!" He pointed an accusatory finger at Amaterasu. "More than I don't like dogs like that!"

"She's not a dog, dude. She's a wolf." Tucker pointed out.

"That's what I said!" Simmons said; glad to hear that someone else around here knew what a freaking wolf looked like.

"And even if she was a dog and not a wolf, how can you not like her?" Tucker looked to Ammy, who was trying hard not to show her impatience. "Everything she's done so far is awesome."

Ammy gave an almost human sigh. It was not of annoyance but of relief. What Tucker had said was the closest thing to praise she had gotten from them since she arrived here. Hell, it was the closest thing to any sort of compliment or respectful courtesy she had received that did not come from Caboose. Maybe she could trust these people. There may still be hope for her, and them. However, she knew that was a big "maybe".

In contrast, Grif showed no such enthusiasm. "I'm allergic!" He blurted out.

"Allergic?!" Simmons exclaimed. "You're wearing full body armor with fully functioning air filters!"

"I don't want to take any chances!"

"When did you ever want to?"

Ammy had enough. She already lost count of how many times they argued in front of her acting as if she were not there. With a huff, she yelled out, _"Enough! Please! This arguing is getting you people nowhere!" _

Grif turned to face the wolf. For some odd reason, he was not at all surprised by her telepathic abilities. "What are you supposed to be? My mom?"

Glaring at him, she quietly growled, _"In a manner of speaking."_

"What the hell does that mean?!" Tucker asked. "Who the hell are you?"

The wolf said nothing for a moment. Then she spoke with a confident and noble voice that rang out and resonated within all the minds present. _ "I am Okami Amaterasu, Goddess of the Sun and the savior of Nippon and I expect to be treated with a little respect."_

Upon hearing that, all the humans present were silent. During all this time, Church had been listening to everyone talking to someone he obviously cannot hear. It was very difficult for him to accept it, but he knew that there was something going on. Unless there was some messed up disease that coincided with the wolf's arrival, there really was no other explanation. Nearly everything about the mutt was weird: talking to people through telepathy, magically growing trees, and those intelligent eyes. Especially the eyes. Church was more than freaked out by that pair of charcoal black eyes. They looked so unnatural yet there seemed to be certain calmness to them and it scared the hell out of him.

Church soon noticed that everyone was silent for more than three seconds. That was unusual. Well, more unusual than usual. "What happened? Everyone's quiet. What did the fucking mutt say?" He could not believe that he just asked that.

"If I heard her right, she just said that she was a god." Tucker answered who was equally shocked and confused.

Church answered with a quiet "What?" Now he was really confused. Sure, Tucker could have been making it up or possibly misinterpreting but that was unlikely. Church was sure that Tucker would never stoop that low but still… a god? Really? How could this flea-ridden mutt be a god? The Blue was willing to admit that the wolf was at least strange. Okay, it was very strange since it came here. Everything about it was strange but despite the newly grown tree, the freaky eyes, and the unheard voices that everyone else can hear; he could not believe that this wolf was a god. That would just be too insane and Church was not the only one who felt this way.

"Yeah, right!" Simmons blurted out. "If you're Amaterasu, then I'm Thor." He pointed to Sarge. "And this is my friend Jesus." Then he pointed to Grif. "And this is my other friend Buddha."

"What?"

"WHAT?! Why am I the Buddha?!"

When he snapped out of his moment of confusion, Tucker asked, "Wait, you know something about her?"

"Amaterasu is the name of the sun god in Japanese mythology," Simmons answered. "She serves not only as the goddess of the sun, but of the universe as well."

When they heard this little revelation, everyone had different thoughts on it. This dog is a god of the sun? ** Of the universe?!** Church now felt that he was hurled into the loony bin, realizing that this whole thing has gotten much worse than he would like. Tucker did not believe it either, but Caboose was excited about it. Then again, Caboose will get excited about anything. On the Red side, the exception in the disbelief department was Donut, who merely thought it was another name for Mother Nature as he fell to his knees again before a light kick from Sarge brought him back up. As for Amaterasu herself, she was pleasantly surprised that someone here knew of her and the gods but was somewhat saddened by the way he referred to her as a myth. It did not surprise her much, but it felt as if another hope was yanked away.

"Simmons," Grif said. "I've said it before but I'll say it again: You're gonna die a fucking nerd."

"Hey! It's good to be knowledgeable of other cultures. It goes a long way."

"Watching anime eight hours a day doesn't count as understanding another culture."

"How do you know that? You can learn a lot from them, you know."

Ammy growled again, putting down her front paw for emphasis. _"That's enough! Just shut up, all of you! I don't know what is wrong with you people but from now on you listen to me."_

"Hey!" said Grif. "You can't tell us what to do!"

She gave an angry snarl. _"Yes. I can."_

"Really? How about you make us?" Saying those words, which is unusual for him to begin with, was probably one of the biggest mistakes he had made for a long time. In a sudden flash of white, the wolf was upon him and Grif found himself staring into pitch black eyes and a set of white fangs mere inches away from piercing his neck. He yelled out in surprise and fear.

"Oh no, Grif!" Simmons cried out as he raised his battle rifle at her.

"Don't fire, Simmons." Sarge said. "I'm sure Grif has this all under control. Hehe…"

"Ammy! What the hell are you doing?!" Tucker yelled as his hand unconsciously reached for his sword…no, not that kind of sword.

"Ah, let her eat him," Church said. "It might make things a little saner around here for once."

Sarge looked at Church and chuckled. "I'd never thought I'd say it but I like the way you think, Blue."

"See!" Caboose said. "This is what happens when you make a wolf with the magic flaming Frisbee really angry. You should apologize!"

Church turned to him, wondering out loud, "A magic flaming wha-? You've got to get some medication or something for that twisted head of yours, man."

Staring up at the wolf that had pinned him to the ground, Grif managed to stutter, "O-okay! Okay! I get it! I take that back! Just let me go!" She gave another growl before stepping off of him. As Grif tried to sit up, Amaterasu angrily stared at him, _"I would never harm a human unless I have no choice, but you should know that I do not take such disrespect lightly." _

Sarge grumbled. This was the second time that he was led to believe that Grif's demise was imminent and it did not happen. He began to think that Fate must be playing with him.

With a sigh, Ammy focused her attention on the others who watched her warily. She sensed the great confusion and disbelief in their minds. All except Church had their various thoughts on her presence here and it seemed it would take a bit more to convince them. As for Church, she was not sure. The goddess still could not figure him out. All she felt was that he was nothing but an empty shell, but he clearly is not. Perhaps he is some sort of creature that she is simply not aware of but as curious as she was of the rude man, Amaterasu still had the others to deal with. She would have to tread carefully with these people if she had a chance of making it out of this. Sitting down on her haunches, she addressed them. _"I understand that you may be confused about me and where I come from."_

"That's an understatement," Tucker replied and the others gave similar thoughts.

_"I see. Then I will explain myself."_ She glanced at the Reds. _"Hopefully without any interruptions from anyone who is trying to kill me for no reason."_

The wolf heard one of them whistling casually, though she could not figure out whom nor did she care. It was understandable why these people were suspicious of her. After knowing for certain that these people were calm enough to at least hear her, she decided to tell her story. Amaterasu hoped that they would at least try to understand.

She doubted it.

* * *

Deep within the wreck of the mysterious spacecraft, Doctor Miles and five other people laid their eyes upon the massive chamber that they were in. The men who came through here before thought that this was not the control room but was some sort of hall or shrine as evidenced by the tall and impressive statues that lined the room's grey walls. Most were knocked over and heavily damaged or destroyed. The ones that were more or less intact depicted winged humanoids that stood three times as high as the men who saw them. Their smooth stone faces looked so human it was uncanny. They wore elegant robes that flowed down to their pedestals, each surrounded by engraved lines that encircled and spread outwards in various directions. Whatever beauty that this room may have had, it no longer had much of it left, though the sheer scale and architectural design was still impressive despite the damage.

"It's just as I thought," Miles said. "It's definitely not Forerunner. The architecture and interior design doesn't match up."

One marine pointed at one of the sculptures, "Hey, Doc. Look at that one." She turned to see what the man was pointing at. There was one stone figure that stood alone that seemed to take precedence over the others. It was a woman that stood tall and majestic and whose head was raised slightly above the others. When she approached the statue, Miles took note of its facial features and gentle complexion. Its almond-shaped eyes, small nose and mouth, and long hair looked quite familiar to her. It took the one marine to say what she was thinking.

"It looks a lot like you."

"The resemblance is striking," she replied, keeping her gaze on the face of the enormous figure feeling as if it were staring back. It did look an awful lot like her except for the fact that it wore a robe instead of civilian attire. The resemblance was not just striking; it was eerie and she felt uneasy. Deciding to keep the peculiar statue off her mind, Miles raised her hand over a smaller pedestal that was in front of it. A holographic screen came to life as strange symbols and logos appeared in front of her and she pulled her hand back in surprise. Sergeant Kane walked up to her with a suspicious look. "Is there something you're not telling us?"

"I did not expect that to happen. Really."

He looked at her for a moment, staring into her dark brown eyes with his own. Taking a breath, he said, "I believe you." She merely nodded and was about to reach for the device when the Marine stopped her. "But that does not mean I should trust you." The scientist said nothing and took a closer look at the screen in front of them. There was no sign of a projector and they soon realized that it was made of hard light, similar to what the Forerunners used. The walls of text were unfamiliar, though there were some pictograms frequently appearing that looked like foxes, dogs, and other creatures in a style reminiscent of the ancient Nazca lines. This certainly added to the strangeness of the situation.

Miles took out a laptop she brought and opened it. She turned it on and a tiny spark of light flashed into existence. Everyone then heard a male voice from it. "Good evening, Doctor Miles. How may I be of assistance?" The Marines were surprised by the British voice as Miles casually replied, "Hello, Mel. I need you to hack into this system and see if there's anything useful."

"Of course, ma'am." The light flickered out of existence and Miles proceeded to connect her laptop to the alien device.

"What the hell was that?" a marine known as John Reynard asked.

"It's a micro-AI," Kane answered. Micro-AI's. They were the next step in the evolution of artificial intelligence. Unlike their shipboard cousins, these things were designed to be portable as they can be powered by a laptop rather than a fusion reactor the size of a house but because they are so small, they do not have nearly the same processing power. However, they were still capable of doing things the human brain cannot.

After a few moments, she asked the sergeant, "What's going with you and Hiroto? You don't seem to like him."

He raised an eyebrow. "It's not that I like him or don't like him," he replied. "I'm just suspicious of him. He's a spook. I can understand what Naval Intelligence had done for humanity in the war, but some the things they've done are questionable at best." He paused, taking a quick look around the large chamber and his men walking around in it. "And it's not him I'm worried about. It's that Freelancer I'm more concerned with."

"Washington? What's wrong with him? He seemed like a nice guy."

"They did something to him. I don't know exactly what it was but it made him go nuts. I'm not sure that he has fully recovered from that."

"Doesn't war drive people insane all the time?"

"That is different. Whatever the Freelancer program did to those people makes me feel uneasy."

Suddenly, a light caught their attention and the two looked to see that floating ball of light again. "Doctor Miles. I have managed to retrieve some information that may be of interest to you." A long string of text appeared on the laptop. Miles examined the contents, thinking about the translated words and Kane had no idea what he was looking at.

"Interesting," she said. "If this is translated correctly, this ship was constructed by a civilization called the Moon Tribe."

"Dumb name," Reynard muttered. Ignoring the leatherneck, Miles continued. "According to this, this 'Moon Tribe' built this ship that they called an 'Ark' as some sort of transport or freighter and-"

"AGH, FUCK!" The sudden yell and a metallic clang took their attention and they saw that Reynard had dropped his rifle and he was clutching his hand. Some of the other marines ran up to him, asking what was wrong. "Something got into my nails, man! Damn, it hurts like hell!"

"Let me see," a marine corporal said. Reynard threw his gloves off and held up his right hand in the sunlight. He and the others saw nothing. His fingernails were cleanly trimmed and had no sign of injury or damage. The scowl on the private's face showed otherwise. "I don't see shit, private."

"I'm telling ya, there's something there!"

Kane turned around and said, "You might want to get that checked by a medic, just to be safe."

"I'd take that advice if I were you," said a voice from behind them. Everyone turned to see Agent Washington strolling into the room. "Doctor Miles, I have been ordered to escort you back to the command center."

"For what?" she asked.

"You will be briefed when you get there."

Miles did not have a choice here. With a nod, she grabbed her equipment and was led out of the room with Washington and the others followed.

"What about Reynard?" a marine asked.

"There's a medic on the compound that would be able to check him out," Washington answered.

"Which one?" Reynard asked.

"Some guy named DuFresne. I'm sure he'll be able to deal with it."

As they walked out, Kane took one quick glance at the large statue, thinking about the uncanny resemblance to the scientist and wondered aloud, "Something doesn't feel right."

* * *

When she first entered the main building, Ellen Miles noticed how bland the interior design looked. Granted, this entire compound was not even here until yesterday but one would think that someone would lighten up on the dull metal grey. It only takes a few minutes just to add a movie poster. Wait. Why was she thinking about interior decorating at a time like this? She was being called back from what may be the greatest discovery of her career and here she was worrying about the color of the walls. As she was escorted by Agent Washington, they turned and entered a door that lead to a room with a few other men. They were looking at a computer screen when she and the Freelancer came in. One of them was the familiar face of Yori Hiroto who turned to face her.

"Ah, Miles. Glad to see that you've come so soon."

"It's not like I've had much of a choice," she replied. "Being escorted across a military installation without being told why doesn't really give me a chance to go sight seeing."

Yori gave no sign of amusement. "Before we get started, I feel inclined to ask that if there is any valuable information you have in regards to this incident, I strongly suggest you tell us." Ellen opened her mouth in shock and then scoffed. She could not believe that she was (as subtle as it was) being accused of being a spy or something. This is the third time that she was looked at as a suspect in this whole thing. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about," she said. "And I don't know why everyone on this rock thinks I know something about that ship more than anyone else."

"It's not the ship I'm concerned about." He paused, eyeing Miles carefully. "What do you know about the survivor we found?"

She shrugged and crossed her arms. The only thing she knew was that it was a man who wore pink before Yori and his Freelancer buddy ran off without saying a word. It could have been a Teletubby stunt double for all she knew. "I know nothing about that."

"No? He certainly seems to know about you."

Miles raised an eyebrow. What was he talking about?

"In the last three hours that we've had him," he continued as he paced back and forth, waving with his arms with emphasis. "We tried every trick in the book to get him to talk. He never said a word. We weren't even sure if he can communicate with us at all." Yori stopped and gave her a cold glare. "That is, until he mentioned you by name."

She froze. Surely, this man could not be serious.

"And not only does this…person know about you; he insisted that he would talk to you and only you." He looked at one door in the room that had two armed marines standing guard. Miles assumed that the strange man she heard about is in there. Yori gave a nod to Washington and the Freelancer led her to the door. He put his hand on the knob but before he turned, Wash warned, "Just a word of advice. You might be a bit shocked by what you see. This guy's a bit…fruity." Miles only nodded and did not say a word.

When the man opened the door, she _was_ surprised by what she saw. There were a lot of strange things the civilian scientist had seen during her service in the UNSC but the man in this small windowless room was among the strangest things she had seen yet. Sitting in the center of the room at a small table was the man in question with his head down. He wore some kind of exotic pink clothing that Miles knew as a Japanese kimono; however her attention was grabbed by the elegant and rather silly headdress that looked like an eagle's head. Long strands of what appeared to be hair flowed down from it, fluttering a little despite the fact that there was no wind. It was in complete contrast with the dull and utilitarian environment around him. It was almost comical. With her mouth agape, she turned to Wash who closed the door after he said, "Can't say I didn't warn you."

After a moment of deep thought, Miles sat down on a chair directly across from the man. Taking a deep breath, she asked, "You wanted to speak to me?" The man gave no response. He only continued to look down at the cold metal table. "Who are you?" Again, there was no reply. Miles sighed, wondering how well this was going to turn out. She was a scientist, not an interrogator.

There were a few long seconds of silence before the man quietly spoke, "I am Waka…the gods' gift to man…" The man finally raised his head, revealing a young and very human face. His blue eyes looked into Miles' own, as if looking into her very soul and it made her uneasy. "I see that you have settled here quite well, ma chérie."

Again, Miles' mouth was agape. She turned to a camera mounted on the wall, giving a "You've got to be kidding me" look. She imagined the reactions from Yori and the others who were certainly watching from the other side of the lens.

"You seem to know quite a bit about me," she said.

"Oui. You remind me so much of…Well, let's just say it's very possible that our paths have crossed before."

Miles leaned forward. "What is that supposed to mean? I've never met you before."

"Perhaps. Could you consider the possibility that it is you who has never met me?"

A great urge to shake her head came to mind. What is with this guy? That made no sense at all.

Waka quietly sighed. "I'm sure a very intelligent and clever woman like you would understand such things."

"I'm sure a woman like me would understand if the person she's talking to wasn't so vague."

"I'm sorry, but it is an unfortunate consequence of my…gift. You see, the future is never constant and predicting it could be very difficult when it comes to details." A confused look on her face answered him. "Oh, I forgot to mention. I'm a prophet."

When those words reached her ears, Miles would have fallen off her chair if she did not have the self-control to restrain her shock. This man was not just weird; he was completely nuts. She had no idea what to make of it. This guy wearing pink attire who claims to be a prophet would have been thrown into an insane asylum if he was not considered evidence. Miles retained her professional composure and asked, "Really?"

"Oui. And here's one I have just gotten: 'The sun that shines upon the roses and violets will guide you through the dark.' That is all I have to say, I'm afraid. It was nice to see you, Ellen Miles."

"What the hell does that mean?"

After the man gave no response, the door then opened and she turned to see Washington. "Miles. You need to get back in here."

"I'm a little busy, Washington."

Taking a breath, the Freelancer said, "Yori says it's important that you speak to him. Right now." Hesitantly, she complied. When she walked back into the other room, Yori was waiting.

"What the hell's going on?" Miles asked him.

"I do not think that you will be able to get anything from this man," Yori pointed at a monitor manned by two technicians. "Look at him, doctor. This is a man that has clearly been traumatized and his mind is less than reliable."

Unknown to him, Yori was not looking at where he was pointing and had little clue that the two young techies were looking at some very naughty photos. Miles did not know if she should laugh at that or not.

"I will admit that he's a bit…fruity," she said. "But he may be our only chance to figure this out."

"I doubt that," Washington said. "Unless you can make sense of all that about the sun and roses."

Yori nodded and turned to Miles. "You're free to go back the crash site and finish whatever work you need done." With that, she left without saying a word. Yori then heard snickering from behind him and he saw the two techs. He also saw what they were looking at and unfortunately for them, they did not notice that he noticed. Walking up from behind them, he said silently, "That is a very productive way to use UNSC equipment…"

The dirty images disappeared with one keystroke and two men just stared at their screens silently. Yori leaned forward and whispered into their ears, "I don't want to catch you two misusing sensitive military hardware again. Clear?"

"Clear, boss."

"Yes, sir."

He patted them both on the shoulder and left. With nervous and guilty looks, they turned around only to see Washington who then said, "You two really need to get girlfriends."

* * *

**Like I said, not crazy at all about this one. The Blood Gulch segment was okay but the Crash Site segment with Miles and everything was not fun but that segment had to be included. I'm also having some concerns over how I'm going to depict Ammy without making her Mary-Sueish as well how I'm going to pull off the whole "Waka knows about Miles" thing. That it is not to say I'll give up. I intend to finish this story but I'm already seeing some potential issues but it may just be me. Anywho, I hope you have enjoyed this segment and as always I will see you in the next chapter. Bye-Bye! **


	5. Off to See the Wizard

**Finally! After a month of writer's block, procrastination, and real life; I finally finished this chapter. This one is shorter than previous chapters and I would like to know if you guys want me to put out short chapters like this or not. I am very sorry about the wait but writer's block was getting to me among other things. Hope you enjoy. **

* * *

**Chapter 5: Off to See the Wizard**

A few hours had passed since Amaterasu arrived at Blood Gulch and first met its inhabitants and spent much of that time telling them her story. Everything from her adventures back home to when she fell to this strange world was told in full detail and in a consistent manner. All of the battles she fought and all the people she had met were described as in detail and exactly as she remembered them. She knew that the human soldiers would have had great difficulty following it. They were all in a semi-circle around her listening, but not understanding half of what the wolf said. It did not help that Tucker had to repeat all of it to Church. If it were any other day, everyone would have seen all this stuff about gods, demons, and mythological worlds to be completely impossible. However, this was no ordinary day and they knew it the moment this strange white wolf walked into Blood Gulch.

When Ammy was finished, it took a few minutes for the guys to take it all in. If it were not for the helmets, their jaws would hit the ground. Finally standing up after sitting on the cold hard ground for an hour, Tucker said, "So let me get this straight: you're a god who can control the elements, fought a bunch of monsters in medieval Japan, traveled through time, and fell through this planet's atmosphere without protection after your sailboat in space piloted by a crazy prophet from the Moon mysteriously blew up?"

The wolf nodded. _"That is an interesting way to put it, but yes."_

"That was the longest and lamest story I've ever heard." Grif said as he lay on the ground half asleep.

"I think she just quoted the plot of every major Japanese myth ever," said Simmons.

"Which is exactly why it's the lamest story I've ever heard," Grif replied. "And also, I don't buy it."

Ammy cocked her head in response. _"Why? Was I not clear enough for you?"_

"I don't mean your story. As messed up as it is, I could probably believe all that about you doing all that crap you said you did, but I'm having trouble believing that you're a god. I mean, I know you're powerful and all, but I didn't expect God to be a dog!" After hearing Tucker and Simmons simultaneously thinking out loud "It's a wolf!" Amaterasu tilted her head the other way. How could this man still not believe her after all that has happened? She brought her attention to the others and knew they believed her. Sort of.

Caboose raised his hand, "Well, when you think about it; 'god' is what you get when you spell 'dog' backwards."

Grif stared at him for a few long seconds. "That's dumb."

"What do you think, Church?" Tucker asked. "You believe all this?"

"Tucker," he replied. "I don't know what to believe anymore. All I know is that I find it so goddamn disturbing that I'm the only one who can't hear what the fucking mutt is saying." When he said that, the wolf looked at him and once again felt uncomfortable under the gaze of those black eyes. He somewhat understood why Ammy had been so curious about him. She was probably not used to ghosts like him and he had to fix that somehow. Listening to everyone talk to a wolf that he could not talk back to was getting annoying. Actually, annoying was an understatement.

_"I have asked this before," _the telepathic voice rang out to all but Church. _"Who is this man?" _

Church immediately noticed that there was a pause in the conversation. He knew that she told someone something and he asked no one specifically, "Uh, what did the wolf say this time?" Inwardly, he sighed. This third party translation crap is going to get old fast and he knew it.

"She just asked who you are," Tucker replied. "Apparently, she still can't get inside your head." Church shivered at that, which was strange since he is a robot body. He did not like the idea that this wolf could read minds and thought it might have been a good thing that she could not see into him. He thought about it for a second and realized something; maybe being a ghost inside of a robot messed with her somehow. It made sense considering that Church technically had no mind to read.

"Uh, yeah well that's because I'm a ghost," he said. The wolf gave a look that Church knew as one of confusion and before anyone would "translate" she might have said, he continued, "It's a long story. Short version is this: Caboose here killed me by accident once. Well actually, more than once, then we got the Reds to build me a body."

_"They 'built' you a body?" _

"Damn straight I did!" Sarge exclaimed. "I've used the best tools and material the 26th century has to offer to build that."

"And a fine job you did, sir," said Simmons.

"Okay," Tucker said. "And now the only reason you're here is that you need to get back to your spaceship so you can return to rule the universe?"

_"Yes."_

"I don't know if I like the sound of that."

"Uh, yeah, there's one thing I forgot to tell you guys," Caboose said nervously. "She doesn't really know anything about this planet so I asked if I could come with her."

All Blues and Reds present looked at him and uttered at the same time, "What?" He turned to Ammy who gave a blank look before turning back and said, "Yeah, she's a little lost and I think we can help her get to the magical mountain in the sky."

"Wait a minute," Tucker said. "'We'? What do you mean by 'We'?"

"Oh yeah, that. Um, you see I uh-"

_"He told me that his friends would come with me." _She glanced at the Blues. _"I presume he means you people." _

All the humans stared at Caboose, who was sweating a little behind his helmet. Tucker then said, "You didn't…" Caboose slowly nodded in response.

"Caboose!" Church yelled. "Are you crazy!?"

"Are you seriously asking that question?" Tucker asked and Church thought about it a little. But he was not as surprised as he would be at what he said next. "You know what? Fuck it. I'm going with you.

"What?!" Everyone looked at the teal soldier with unbelieving eyes. Though not quite in sync, they all did a double take and Church was especially confused at what his teammate said. "Tucker? What are you doing?"

"Think about it, Church. We've been in this canyon for almost a year doing nothing but stand around and bitch about nothing happening." He pointed at Amaterasu, who was listening intently with her ears pricked forward. "And look, something's happened!"

"So you want to go on a stupid quest to help a mystical dog, with 'Caboose', and help it find a way to go back wherever the hell she came from and probably get yourself killed on the way."

"Yeah, pretty much."

Even though he did not have one, Church's jaw dropped. Surely, Tucker could not be serious. Did he forget about what happened to him the last time they went on some cockeyed adventure? They nearly got themselves killed in the most ridiculous ways possible and Tucker got_ pregnant._ "You really want to do this, don't you?"

Tucker shrugged. "It's better than sitting around and talk all day."

The Blue leader thought about it for a moment. While it was true that this little "quest" would no doubt be dangerous, it certainly would be more interesting than what they had endured in the past nine months. It was a wonder why they didn't go mad from boredom yet. Maybe they already have. When he looked at the white wolf standing there, he felt a strange, albeit small, sense of empathy for her. He had no choice but to believe what the others had said about what she was. Even they couldn't possibly be crazy enough to believe that the furry canine was a physical deity. If what he heard was true, then there would certainly be other things that had fallen as well; things potentially far more dangerous than he had ever faced before. Still, maybe there could be something they could get out of this and perhaps he could find out more about this wolf called Amaterasu.

He then thought up another reason. There was no point in staying behind if Caboose and Tucker were to go. They'd probably scream for his help a mere two hours after leaving, let alone the few days it would certainly take and he did not want to deal with the Reds all by himself. Church took a deep breath. "Fine. I'll go."

"Alright then," Tucker said. "Let's get this over with."

Before he even made a single step, Church raised his hand. "Hold on a minute, Tucker. We're going to need some supplies and equipment if that thing is as far as the mutt says it is."

"Don't worry!" Caboose chimed in. "I already got that problem solve-ed." He looked down and everyone was surprised to see bags full of camping gear at his feet that seemed to have mysteriously appeared out of nowhere. Even Amaterasu was shocked to see it.

"Whoa!"

"What the?! Where the hell did all that come from?" Church asked.

"I packed all this stuff when you told me to find Ammy," Caboose replied casually. "And now we're all ready to have the greatest party ever!"

Instead of making another complaint, Church and Tucker merely nodded. They did not have much of a choice now that Caboose had convinced them and asked the Reds if they would come.

"Oh no," Sarge said. "We're going to stay here and win this fight! Now that your base is undefended, the Red Army will march on and take it. This canyon will be liberated once and for all!"

They all just gawked at him. While he had a point about the base, there was one little problem. "Yeah," Church said nonchalantly. "It's so glorious to have _two _bases in the middle of a box canyon instead of one."

"Whoop-de-fucking-doo," Tucker added.

"Why are you guys so calm about this," Simmons asked. "We'll have control of your base when you get back!"

Tucker shrugged. "Then we'll just take it back. It wouldn't be that hard."

Sarge tightly gripped his shotgun. "We'll see about that." The Blues said nothing of it and wondered about how many times Sarge had threatened them like that and failing to follow through. When they started to head off, Caboose turned back to see Donut waving goodbye.

"Hope you guys have a great time! Man, you guys get to have all the fun." Briefly, all of the humans gave him blank stares and they all thought roughly the same thing: how could the screwball that happened nine months ago be fun? Maybe in a weird and twisted way, but not even they couldn't describe all that as "fun". "Don't forget to send postcards!"

Caboose turned around and waved back. "I will, Captain Funnel Cake! We'll remember you!"

_God, I hope not. _Church thought as they headed for the cave. A mumble from Tucker coincided with this but he doubted this would be the last time they would see Blood Gulch. No matter how far they had gone on their previous "adventures", they always found their way back here. It seemed as if Fate itself wanted them to stay here as if they belonged there and it was a scary thought.

"Go on, you cowardly Blues!" Sarge shouted behind their backs. "Once you're gone, we will take control of this canyon and win a victory for the glorious Red Army!" While he was taunting them, the other Reds noticed something odd as their enemies/sort-of-friends marched off: there were flowers spontaneously growing in her wake, leaving behind a trail of green and pink flora. Their eyes were locked on the strange sight and their heads were following Amaterasu and the life she was leaving behind.

"-and upon your return, we will finally end this war and destroy your-"

The Blues were relieved when the gruff and irritating voice began to fade in the distance. Even though they were embarking on a new adventure they knew was likely to be dangerous, they were all glad to be at least doing something. Away from Blood Gulch. Away from the Reds. There would be new landscapes to see that differed from the arid and hilly field surrounded by stone cliffs they were exposed to every day. They would, at least for a little while, no longer be eating bland cardboard for breakfast and spend the rest of the day doing nothing. Sure, they would probably be back in a few days and nothing could happen. Maybe Amaterasu could find a way back home and the Blues would return here as if nothing happened.

Or they could find themselves in a total mess that would severely endanger or possibly kill them. It didn't matter at the moment, though. This was better than sitting around watching the Reds insult them like they were doing now. After nine months of complete monotony, dangerous adventure trumps boredom as far as they were concerned. The only problems the Blues had now were themselves.

Under the shadow of the towering rock face, the Blues reached the grotto that led out of the canyon. It was barely tall enough for them to enter and was pitch black. Church turned on his flashlight which was mounted on the side of his helmet and the passageway could be seen. As Tucker followed suit, the Blue leader mentally shook his head at the fact that they never used them before. How could such a simple and reliable tool be used so little during his time here? In fact, he did not see _anyone _use their flashlights at any time.

Looking at the cave, Tucker turned his head to the wolf beside him. "Hey, Ammy?"

_"Hmm?"_

"You didn't see any, um… spiders in there, did you?"

She paused. _"I saw none that could pose a threat to anyone."_

Tucker quivered. "Don't bullshit me, man. Spiders can be really poisonous; especially the little ones!"

"Tucker," Church said. "A spider isn't going to do anything to you. You're wearing full-body armor, for fuck's sake!"

"Spiders have fangs, dude!"

Church sighed under his helmet and put hand to it. He could not possibly be serious. "Again, you're wearing highly advanced body armor that can protect you against bullets and explosions. No spider is big enough to do anything to that."

"This is an alien planet! We don't know if there are giant radioactive spiders around like we see in those old movies."

Having enough of their arguing for the tenth time, Amaterasu stepped up and stood between them and the cave. _"I will take the lead. Caboose and I have already been through here before so we have a good idea where we're going." _She grinned. _"And I will deal with any problems involving killer spiders. As you know, I've dealt with it before." _

Both Tucker and Church nodded once and they let her proceed into the dark hole. Tucker shivered at the thought of giant spiders, but was quickly relieved after hearing Ammy's reassurance. Church shook his head, thinking that Tucker was the one who wanted to go on this trip and already he's starting to chicken out. Over _spiders, _of all things. He let the wolf go first and was going to duck into the passage when he noticed Caboose standing there a few paces away.

"Caboose, let's go!"

At first, he did not respond but soon took notice and walked up to him. "What was that about?"

"Oh, I thought I saw something really dark and hard to see up there." Caboose pointed to a distant cliff but Church saw nothing remarkable. The young man entered the hole without another word. He suddenly felt a cold breeze blow over him from behind and turned to the source. There was nothing but an empty canyon and a barely audible Sarge and his team. When he looked at the top of the cliff again, he could have sworn to see a low shadowy figure that quickly disappeared. After blinking several times, Church didn't see it again. Thinking it was probably a bird or something; the Blue leader ducked into the dimly lit passage and followed his companions out of the canyon.

* * *

"-and after we steal your armor and burn your dirty corpses, we will dance the tango of victory! And then we will-"

After listening to him boasting for a full two minutes, Simmons told his superior, "Uh, Sarge? I think they're gone."

"What?" He looked around to see that the Blues were indeed gone and they were the only ones in the canyon now. Sarge smiled. "Well, hot damn, it looks like my stab at psychological warfare has paid off! Simmons, Grif; I want you to meet me at the warthog while Donut and I grab some parts to repair it."

"Why do we need the jeep?" Grif asked. "It's not like we're fighting anybody."

"Because we might need the extra firepower when they inevitably return. We need to be proactive." He gave Grif a cold glare. "Which is something you were never good at." He waved Donut to come with him and he complied, leaving behind the two men.

"You know, Simmons? Sometimes I wonder why I even bother to stay here. Simmons?" Grif turned to his companion, who was staring out at nothing in particular. He seemed unfocused and confused before he shook his head.

"Wh-wh-what?"

"Hey, were you paying attention?"

After finding it strange that Grif, of all people, would ever ask that, Simmons replied, "Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

The chubby man shrugged. "I don't know. You just seemed a little distracted."

"No I wasn't!" Simmons took a quick glance at what he was staring at before; the same cliff top Caboose was looking at before and he saw nothing there. He could've sworn he saw something standing there, something dark and ill-defined. The wave of anxiety that fell over him was not alleviated by the cool breeze that blew over him. The nerdy man knew that didn't seem right in this arid climate. Things were getting stranger and stranger.

Then a random thought hit him and when it did, he could not believe he was thinking it. It was a thought that was so utterly ridiculous and stupid, that if dumbness could be measured in weight, the planet would have fallen into the sun and anyone who would have been around to make a "Yo Mama" joke out of it would be burned to a crisp. But his desire for sucking up to authority, the _ultimate_ authority in his mind, was very tempting and took precedence over his intellect and common sense. Yes, it could work. "Hey Grif, meet me at the warthog. I need to grab something real quick."

Before Grif could say anything, Simmons ran off towards another part of the canyon. Grif was all alone, at least for a few minutes. Greatly confused, he thought out loud, "Well, that was interesting."

* * *

**That's where I'm going to stop for now. Again, this was held up because of a lot of things but it's mostly because of writer's block and some rather discouraging thoughts about whether or not this is worth writing. I like writing this and I have a lot of ideas for it, but I don't know. I will still continue this so don't worry. **

**Like before, I appreciate any reviews, comments, or questions anyone might have and I will see you next time.**


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